SULAIMANI (ESTA) — The Iraqi ministry of health said on Wednesday up to 110 Iraqis who were repatriated to Iraq from India had been infected by COVID-19.
Spokesman of the Iraqi health ministry Saif Badr said it was still not clear whether they had been infected by the new Indian variant.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that the so-called Indian variant of coronavirus had now been detected in 44 countries in all six WHO regions.
“All Iraqis returned from India are subject to public health controls and procedures,” the health ministry said.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi has ordered the repatriation of Iraqis stranded in India, after Baghdad suspended all flights to and from Inia due to sharp increase in COVID-19 cases.
As many as 68 Kurdish civilians were among the Iraqis repatriated from India.
The Kurdish Ministry of Health said in April that civilians who are returning from India would be quarantined for 14 days upon their arrival to the Kurdistan Region.
“Even if the second PCR test was negative, those people would be quarantined at their home for the third week and will be monitored by the medical teams,” the ministry said.
Iraqi Ambassador to India Falah al-Saadi told state news agency INA that there were around one thousand Iraqis in India.
