Iraq: Did Pope Francis' Visit Help Covid-19 Contamination?

Did the papal visit cause the record of Covid-19 contamination found in Iraq?

Nearly two weeks after Pope Francis' trip, the country is in any case recording 5,663 new cases, a record in this state of 40 million inhabitants where this number is in all likelihood underestimated.

If the link between the visit and this record cannot be affirmed with certainty, in the absence of scientific studies and effective tracing, the pilgrimage of the Sovereign Pontiff in the midst of crowds but despite everything compact, and where the wearing of the mask is rare, has something to question.

Despite this increase in contamination and the shortage of drugs, doctors and hospitals for decades, the authorities yet again announced Tuesday evening to ease the curfew introduced a few weeks earlier.

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With 5,663 new patients and 33 deaths in the past 24 hours, according to the Ministry of Health, the number of Iraqis infected since the appearance of the coronavirus in the country in February 2019 is now 768,352, including 13,827 dead.

Iraq received only 50,000 doses of vaccine

These statistics are announced daily by the Ministry of Health, which indicates that it conducts around 40,000 tests every day, a very low rate in a country with several cities of more than two million inhabitants where the density is high and overcrowded. permed.

In addition to the lack of medical equipment to receive patients - who generally prefer to install an oxygen cylinder in their homes rather than go to dilapidated hospitals - Iraq has only received 50,000 doses of vaccine (from Chinese Sinopharm) on the eve of the pope's arrival.

Baghdad boasts of a plan to purchase 16 million doses over time, but Parliament has still not passed the 2021 budget.

From March 5 to 8, for the first papal visit to Iraq in history, Francis toured the country, celebrating prayers and masses among hundreds of worshipers who crowded around him, and even in a stadium. filled with thousands of people in Erbil.

At these gatherings, as in everyday life, there were few masked Iraqis - and the recent introduction of a fine has not changed this.