Iraq detects new UK-based strain, reimposes partial lockdown

Iraq will re-impose partial lockdown steps till early March after discovering a new strain of the coronavirus, including among children, its health minister declared on Monday.

“Unfortunately, government labs showed genetic mutations in the Covid-19 strain, detecting the new fast-spreading strain in Iraq,” Hassan al-Tamimi told journalists .

He referred to the strain as the one “which spread in the UK,” and said it had been detected in some Iraqi children but did not give a total number of people who had been diagnosed with the new variant.