Shafaq News/ Spokesperson to the Iraqi Ministry of Health (MoH) attributed the abrupt surge of COVID-19 cases in the country to the public's "non-compliance" to the preventive measures.

Member of the Ministry's Media team, Roba Falah, told Shafaq News Agency that the Ministry is focused upon bolstering the vaccination rollouts to mitigate the impact of the pandemic wave.

Falah asserted that abiding by the preventive measures and receiving the vaccine can contain the wave, prevent the spread of the virus, and the emergence of new variants.

"Omicron spreads for times fater than the Delta variant," she said, "the infection rate will rise. This is dependent, however, upon the compliance of the public to the preventive measures."

"Unfortunately, Iraqis are not committed to the preventive measures. This might bring the infection rates higher and create more virulent variants."