While many countries in Europe, the United States and the Middle East are facing a second wave of epidemic testing, the coronavirus epidemic in Iraq has improved significantly.
Recently, Iraqi Health Minister Hassan Tamimi said in an interview with the station reporter that China’s strong assistance is an important reason for Iraq’s stage progress in the fight against the epidemic.
In the past month, the epidemic in Iraq has improved significantly, with the number of new confirmed cases decreasing from more than 4,000 at the peak to about 2,000, and the number of deaths per day has dropped from more than 100 at the peak to 3, 40.
According to the standards of the World Health Organization, if the detection rate of COVID-19 is less than 5%, the epidemic can be considered to be effectively controlled. Today, Iraq’s detection rate has dropped from more than 20% at its peak to about 6%.
Tamimi believes that the nucleic acid laboratory built with the assistance of China is indispensable for making such progress, which provides Iraq with sufficient detection capabilities.
Iraqi Health Minister Hassan Tamimi: This laboratory has played a very important role, contributing tens of thousands of tests. It replaces the central laboratory of the Ministry of Health as the center of epidemic testing and is currently one of the most authoritative laboratories in Iraq.
General Station reporter Fu Xinri: At the beginning of the coronavirus epidemic, in fact, Iraq’s domestic testing capacity and procedures for the novel coronavirus were lacking. After the volunteer expert team of the Chinese Red Cross came to Iraq to help build a PCR laboratory and communicate, the medical staff here soon formed an effective testing process.
Iraqi Health Minister Hassan Tamimi: Since the beginning of the epidemic, we have worked closely with China. We have visited the Chinese Embassy every week, held regular meetings with Chinese experts and manufacturers, and purchased relevant medical supplies, which have helped us a lot.
Tamimi said that years of war have caused great damage to Iraq’s medical infrastructure, but with the help of China, the epidemic in Iraq is improving. Next, the Iraqi government will continue to work closely with China to fully control the domestic epidemic as soon as possible.
