27/08/2020

Coronavirus infects high-level Chaldean–Syriac–Assyrian religious and political figures in Iraq

BAGHDAD — As the coronavirus continues to spread across Iraq, a number of Syriac Chaldean Christian clerics in the country have been infected, including Patriarchate Assistant Archbishop Mor Basilius Yaldo, the Patriarchate Assistant Archbishop Robert Said Gerges, Priest Salah Khadur, and a number of nuns of the Daughters of Mary in Baghdad.

Former Syriac Assyrian Member of Iraqi Parliament for the Assyrian Democratic Movement Imad Youkhana Yaqo and his family have also been infected by the virus.

The Ministry of Health in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq recorded 677 cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, the highest daily rate of infection in months. It was also announced that there were 18 deaths on Wednesday, bringing the total number of deaths in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq to 948.

The total number of confirmed infections in the region has increased to 25,929, including 15,494 recoveries.

Two Christian clerics in Syria succumbed to the coronavirus earlier in the month.