ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – During a press conference on Tuesday, the Kurdistan Region’s Minister of Health, Saman Barznji, said the decision to impose a curfew across the autonomous Kurdish region was a major factor in curbing the outbreak of the coronavirus, officially known as COVID-19.

“Today, we had another meeting with the Chinese delegation, and we are pleased that the Chinese medical team evaluated the precautionary measures taken by the KRG [Kurdistan Regional Government],” Barznji stated. He added that according to the Chinese medical team, “these preventive measures have acted as a major factor in greatly reducing the number of infected.”

“We will take into consideration all the observations of the Chinese delegation that were mentioned in a report submitted to the Ministry of Health,” Barznji said, stressing that “keeping the public in their homes is the most important measure taken against COVID-19 worldwide.”

The KRG has imposed a region-wide curfew, restricting pedestrian and traffic movement, closed down markets, suspended schools and governmental institutions, prevented travel between the Kurdistan Region’s cities, districts, and sub-districts, and stopped travel between the region and Iraqi cities except for trade and food.

The curfew has been in place since March 13 and was initially expected to last until at least April 1. However, the KRG extended the curfew until April 16 as part of measures to limit the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the autonomous region. There have been no further announcements on a possible extension after April 16.

“At this point, the curfew cannot be lifted, it depends on the medical assessments,” Haval Abu-Bakr, the governor of Sulaimani province, which has the highest rate of coronavirus cases in Kurdistan Region, stated.

Abu-Bakr denied that Sulaimani had objected to an extension of the curfew measures used to combat the coronavirus following reports the province was working to ease the lockdown restrictions.

Regarding the extension of the curfew, minister Barznji underlined the importance of the lockdown and said it is “one of the main reasons that have limited the spread of the virus.” He also noted that 97 out of 162 confirmed cases in the region were due to interaction with infected individuals.