Al-Kaabi criticizes the government’s “traditional” management of Covid-19

Shafaq News/ The head of the Parliamentary Crisis Cell, Hassan Al-Kaabi, said today, Monday, the increase in infection and death rates of Covid-19 in Iraq, is mainly attributed to the failure of the Ministry of Finance to provide the money, allocated by the parliament, to the Ministry of Health. Al-Kaabi warned from the collapse of the health situation, if the government continues to manage the pandemic in a “traditional way”.

Al-Kaabi, who is the first vice-president of the Iraqi Council of Representatives, in a statement received by Shafaq News agency, described the government performance as "slow" and "inefficient", regarding the battle with Covid-19 pandemic.

Al-Kaabi said that he personally, and before registering any Covid-19 case in Iraq, submitted a request to form a crisis cell. He added that, despite being able to cordon off the pandemic initially, the slow and ineffective management of the government contributed to the elevation of the infection and death rates. Al-Kaabi attributed this failure to the government’s laxative implementation of the parliamentary and governmental crisis cells instructions and its poor response to the commodity insecurity, as it did not effectively address the gap in the demand of medical assets and PCR kits by the healthcare facilities.


He added that the National Health and Safety Committee neglected, over the past months, the issue of providing and preparing quarantine centers for confirmed and suspected patients, and did not benefit from the experiences of countries that have successfully achieved control over the pandemic. This poor management, as by Al-Kaabi, “will lead to the complete collapse of the healthcare system”, and subsequently, “losing hundreds of our loved people across the country”.