COVID-19 pandemic in Iraq

The COVID-19 pandemic in Iraq was a part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2).^[2] During the pandemic, Iraq reported its first confirmed cases of SARS-CoV-2 infections on 22 February 2020 in Najaf.^[3] By April, the number of confirmed cases had exceeded the hundred mark in Baghdad, Basra, Sulaymaniyah, Erbil and Najaf.^{[4][non-primary source needed]}

As of 7 April 2020, officially 28,414 tests have been done in Iraq as a whole (including the Kurdistan Region), with 1202 of them turning out positive.^[4] Of those tests, 12,143 were done by the Kurdish Ministry of Health, which means that the other 16,271 were done by the Iraqi Ministry of Health.^[2] While 0.25% of the Kurdistan Region's population has been tested, only 0.05% of the rest of the country has been tested, thus highlighting the possible disparity between total positive case numbers between regions. Iraq is considered "especially vulnerable to the epidemic due to being ravaged" – by war and United Nations sanctions, and by sectarian conflict over the past three decades.^[5]