The Importance of Developing Communication Networks to Face Emergency

The study of past events is called history. Studying history helps us to achieve greater self-awareness. Documentation is more important to understand our past. Decisions made and actions taken by our ancestors in the past due to their experiences are the foundations for us to take effective actions today. Basically we are ‘building on’ of what they started. That’s why it’s important to study history, it serves as a road map or sometimes like a light in the dark.

Kurdish people are renowned for their rebellious attitude. Aim of this article is to document “What are the series of actions taken by Kurdistan Regional Government to tackle the challenges posed by COVID19”. KRG is striving a lot to contain the spread of Novel Corona Virus within its province. Author used Rudaw English news website as the source for data and the period is from 22^nd February 2020 to 31^st March 2020 and I personally express my thanks to Rudaw. The reason for choosing this period is the first headline regarding KRG actions against the COVID19 appeared on 22^nd February 2020 in RUDAW English.

The novel coronavirus also known as COVID19 was first detected in the Wuhan city of Hubei province, China during December 2019. Since its spread it has taken the lives of 88,565 and infected 1.5 million people globally. 209 countries and territories are struggling every minute to control this COVID19 epidemic. Based on the number of infected cases, now China is in 6^th place and USA, SPAIN, ITALY, GERMANY, FRANCE are in the first five places respectively.

You may wonder why the author has given the title “KRG deserves WHO praises”. The reason is, World Health Organization applauded Kurdistan Regional Government on 28^th February 2020 for taking effective measures to prevent the spread of COVID19.

Till 1^st of March no confirmed cases were there in the Kurdistan region. But KRG started taking necessary actions from 22^nd February 2020, like screening people returning from Iran and quarantined hundreds of people in two hotels of Soran town of Erbil province. KRG is pioneer to other countries in using private hotels as quarantine center. Next to China, some major cities of Italy, South Korea and Iran has become epicenter of COVID 19. On hearing the news that the neighboring Iran has become epicenter of COVID19 and hundreds of people quarantined in Soran town, panic tremor spread all over the Erbil province of Kurdistan. As a result, demand for the masks and hand sanitizers increased drastically. On 23^rd February 2020, Erbil’s mayor and a committee from KRG’s Health Ministry during their squad visit to pharmacies in Erbil found that, some pharmacies have taken advantage of the situation and raised the price of medical masks. KRG’s Health Ministry to penalize the offenders ordered those 18 pharmacies to shut down. Citizens of Kurdistan welcomed the stringent action taken by the ministry against pharmacies. The headline given for this news by the RUDAW English is really amazing. Yes, preying on others fear is unjustifiable and it is equivalent to barbaric or inhumane act.

Every one of us would have experienced the consequences in believing rumors. One such rumor triggered chaos across Kurdistan region on 25^th February 2020. As an action to control the spread of COVID19, KRG shut down its borders with Iran. Though the KRG authorities insist fuel supplies have not been impacted by the closure of borders with Iran, a rumor about fuel shortage aroused and motorists queued for many hours outside petrol stations.

On 26^th February 2020, Iraq’s foreign ministry issued a statement on suspending entry visas for seven corona virus hit countries and KRG appended five more countries to entry suspension list. Also KRG criticized Baghdad for failing to quarantine Iraqis returning from Iran. KRG interior minister Rebar Ahmed expressed his fear and anxiety in a press conference in Erbil that, a large number of Iraqis or the majority who return to Iraq undergo some sort of testing and are sent back home. They never get quarantined. Also he added that, KRG decided to quarantine people returning from Iran and other coronavirus hit countries and has taken maximum necessary measures against the outbreak of COVID19. For these reasons World Health Organization applauded Kurdistan Regional Government on 28^th February 2020.

Following tabulation elucidate the various precautionary measures and actions taken against the outbreak of COVID19 by KRG within its province.