Coronavirus Diaries: The Stories of Anoush Ehteshami’s PhD Gang of Four

Professor Anoush Ehteshami introduces four 'coronavirus diaries' written by his PhD students from different areas of the world, yet undertaking their studies at Durham University during the pandemic.

The Covid-19 pandemic was akin to a slow fuse being lit under the lives and communities of seemingly disconnected people around the world. The world sat on its hands in the new year and watched the crisis unfold in Wuhan with varying degrees of interest in the Chinese authorities’ undisguised growing anxiety about the spread of the new coronavirus and their decisive action to lockdown a city of over 10 million people in just a few days in January in order to contain the spread of this deadly respiratory virus. By February, the scale of the health crisis and its tsunami-like spread and destructiveness had become quite apparent. I first sensed the brewing crisis when confronted by health officials taking temperature of all arriving passengers at Venice’s Marco Polo airport. At the conference in Venice, 16-18th of February, ironically on China’s relations with surrounding Asian regions, the virus came up only in passing, but I saw first-hand the effects of the virus on the city in the declining visitor numbers from China on local business. Conference participants from Milan appeared unaware of the storm heading their way and we all headed away from the city on the 18th blissfully ignorant of what was about to hit northern Italy, and the rest of Europe to be sure,   in the following days. By the 20th of February, the Italian government had declared a state of emergency in the Lombardy region of Italy, Milan had become as ghost town and the horrors of the crisis had come that much closer to us in Europe. Three weeks later, we were looking down the barrel of the Covid-19 gun in the UK and our University acted swiftly in March, even before the government’s announcement of a national lockdown, to prevent the spread of the virus through the university community. From that moment on, my contacts with my PhD students had entered a virtual world. My community of researchers is a microcosm of the diversity and the globally-integrated nature of the leading institutions of learning and research in the UK. With a perfect gender balance of two female and two male students, this group of four have travelled from China, Italy, Iraqi Kurdistan, and Turkey/Qatar to do their PhDs with me and were now finding themselves in the midst of a crisis directly affecting their lives here as well as their homelands.

Since the lockdown, we have been meeting virtually every Friday, to talk and exchange views, also to ensure that the all-important PhD work does not unduly suffer. This group has experienced the lockdown in different ways, and indeed in different locations, so their stories and their reflections captures well the essence of what happens when all of humanity is in crisis. As our weekly conversations deepened and widened, it struck me that our collective responses to the pandemic, and its impact on our daily lives told an interesting story of resilience, but also of our reflective responses to a situation beyond each individual’s control, but a situation nonetheless with direct and potentially devastating impact on each of our lives. These diaries are the reflections, personal takes and interpretations, and unadulterated stories of the lockdown through the eyes of four individuals from different parts of the world whose only common link is their treasured studies at Durham University.

Prof Anoush Ehteshami

Coronavirus and Me

Betul Dogan-Akkas

I do not remember exactly when I heard about the spread of COVID-19 in China. The moment I saw videos and photos from China that people were dying in the middle of the streets, I was shocked. However, I never thought that this would become a global disaster. In late January, I ordered some products from Amazon, they were all made in China. In a couple of weeks, the delivery was at my door, and I had no concerns over using them. Then, I did not think this will be the case for a very long time. How has everything changed so quickly?

With no personal trust in the authoritarian regime in China, the spread of virus thus at the beginning for me looks like an option for further repression of the local people. I was not thinking from a medical perspective or biopolitics. Some people around me were more concerned by the end of February; however, our lives were quite normal until the middle of March. We booked a holiday in Spain for the 30th of March, got our visas, and I did not even think that the virus would prevent any of my plans. Everything started slowly and ‘quarantine’ came step-by-step. First, we decided to self-isolate as a family, although my son kept going to the local nursery. I was working from home and shopping online for groceries. Then, schools were closed and our daily routine started evolving into a new frame.

We started doing shifts with my husband for the division of labour regarding childcare, cleaning, cooking, etc. My son was quite happy being at home, and in two weeks he started using more Turkish words, discovered our home, garden, and neighbourhood. We re-designed the garden and the living room to keep him busy, and to let him enjoy the time he is having at home. Now, we got used to it, and we are lucky financially and socially, so only we can be thankful for being advantaged in this time of turmoil.

Although our micro-life is fine so far, since my husband and I are working on economics and politics respectively, our mind is quite busy with the way governments are handling the pandemic. My work is on the GCC, and I am from Turkey, living in England. This makes my concerns triple, including all these countries’ policymaking and social situation under the COVID-19.

Qatar – second home

To start with Qatar, most of the people who are upper-middle-class or white-collar expats are fine financially and working from home. The Qatari government lead, the spokesperson of the foreign ministry, Lolwah Al-Khater, became the representative of the official voice during the pandemic. I watch every day her speeches on TV, and I found it quite wise to put a woman in charge of the pandemic. I also have some friends in Qatar, who are owners of small shops, and they were panicking at the very beginning considering their payments to workers and the rent. Right after the state announced its economic support to the society, they relaxed.

The pandemic re-indicated to me both the similarities and differences we have across the world. For instance, in Qatar, having a driver is so normal; however, it was forbidden to have more than two persons in the car. There was not any explanation offered to the drivers. Families are quite crowded. Thus, the videos shared by the state channel to inform society gives us this unique structure of the Qatari society emphasizing how social distancing is possible in their collective lifestyles. I have texted my son’s babysitter back in Doha to learn of her condition, and she told me that the school does not pay her, but they cover the accommodation since the workers live in the same dorm. Blue-collar workers thus are in more trouble because their contracts are usually valid for the time they are actively working, and they live in the dorms with many other people.

England – current home

In England, I have understood that the regular political system, which is based on the individual’s rational thinking and responsibility for the outcome of any act, is also valid for the virus. We are supposed to self-isolate, but there is not much control by the police or the army. We, as individuals, are supposed to protect the NHS, rather than the state itself covering the protection of all of us. I was surprised by the emails from the University suggesting that if it is possible, we should go back to our home countries. We have a life here, we pay rent, we have a house, a car. Most of the postgraduate students do not have a house back in their home country. Apart from this, their scholarship is not paid if they go back. In addition to this, our visas cover health insurance. Thus, in the time of any crisis, we expect the University to support us here where we pay the cost for everything and we are officially residents, rather than instructing us to go back to our home country. I can understand that any person is an additional burden on the NHS from the perspective of policymakers; however, this is why before moving to the UK, students pay this extreme amount of money for health insurance. This issue let me think more about being a temporary resident in a country.

Besides this, I feel quite calm being in England during the pandemic because I agree with the idea of herd immunity and self-care, instead of running to emergency services in a minute of flu. This did not prevent me from laughing when I heard that Boris Johnson brings the idea that herd immunity is positive.

Turkey – the home

In the case of Turkey, things are even more complicated. At the beginning of quarantine, I had a call from my family and learned that my father is having an angio. I was sad but, at the same time, relieved because health care is outstanding in Turkey. He was fine after a couple of weeks and working from home. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Turkish management of the crisis management has been conducted heavily the Ministry of Health. The Minister of Health gives everyday briefings. Since politics has become more centralized around the presidential office in the last few years, we are all surprised seeing a minister responsible and managing the crisis, and doing it well. In the middle of the pandemic, the Minister of Interior resigned from his position declaring that he is the one responsible for the crisis that happened when the government announced lockdown for the weekend. The announcement was two hours before midnight, and literally everybody was on the street panic buying. The news called it a ‘virus party’. Thankfully, they announced the weekend lockdown earlier for the coming week, and the citizens got used to it. President Erdogan did not accept the resignation of the Minister of Interior, and people supported him clapping from the balconies.

In addition to this, a nation-wide support campaign started to have a financial contribution to the government’s budget for the pandemic. Similar to Qatar and the UK, the health service is free for registered residents. Also, the government forbade the sale of masks and started distributing them for free. This was a controversial decision. Some people supported it, but some criticized asking how long it will take to provide masks to everybody for free. In Turkey, different than the UK, the health services encourage you to go to emergency services if you have any symptoms. The Minister of Health says they have enough infrastructure to handle the burden of patients. Many citizens living abroad went back to Turkey to be with their families and to have a chance to go to the hospital if they needed health care. They are taken directly from the airport and transferred to the dorms for 14 days of isolation.

The pandemic also re-emphasized the social problems in Turkey. For instance, people mostly do not act consciously when the officials (the police) are not present. The urbanization is another issue highlighted by the pandemic. People live in big cities in apartments without having access to parks or green areas to have a walk. The urbanization is not based on improving the local environment; city living is popular and full of apartments.

The hope

It looks like that, by the summer, things will be better. However, I hope that both citizens and states do understand the importance of their mutual responsibilities. The facts that the virus has enlightened us all about will not disappear, when we will be out again.

My Coronavirus Tale

Jacopo Scita

A virus that came from China hits Iran

My experience with the coronavirus epidemic began, as for most of the people living outside China, as a distant, inscrutable noise. Initially, news from China was confusing, while the magnitude of what was going to begin was hidden under a fog of cover-up and ignorance. However, the fact that, at the time, this was a Chinese – and arguably a Chinese-only – problem was not a sufficient consolation to me. In fact, I not only have many friends and colleagues who are from and live in China but my best friend – a person that I consider no less than a close member of my family – has moved to Shanghai in early 2019.

I must say that news from her has always been positive and full of hope, probably because Shanghai has never been in the eye of the storm. When on the 23rd of January the Chinese government locked down the Hubei province and city of Wuhan, I had a phone call with her. She was surprisingly calm. Two weeks after, a text message woke me up in the middle of the night. She was on her way back to Italy, flying from Shanghai to Moscow and then to Florence. While she was still fine and seraphic, her decision was motivated by the increasingly restrictive measures imposed all around China, the work-from-home orders, and, most of all, some understandable doubts about her health insurance. At that point, I was relieved that she was coming back to Italy.

In the middle of February, the epidemic reached Iran. I immediately felt like the coronavirus was slowly coming towards me. In the last 5 years, my research has mainly focused on Iran and Sino-Iranian relations. Watching the Azadi Tower in Tehran spectacularly lighted in solidarity with Wuhan while Mahan Air was still flying Chinese tourists and students back and forth from Qom was a bitter experience. I knew that an epidemic in Iran would have meant a humanitarian disaster. But, at the same time I was witnessing all the intrinsic problems, distortions, and dangers of Sino-Iranian relations happening right in front of my eyes. The desire for writing about this was brewing, but I eventually stopped it. The tragedy, both in China and Iran, was real and involved, more or less directly, people that I know. What was happening was everything but a distant case study that corroborates my thoughts and academic elucubration. Researching and writing about events that happen thousands of miles away from your desk is often a troublesome experience. Everything tends to become abstract. But in the case of the outbreak in Iran, I was not ready to use it to deliver my message. It may sound paradoxical but, as I discovered almost one month later, the fact that the first two countries that experienced the tragedy are the object of my research had not so much less impact on my perception of the virus than its outbreak in the countries I belong to, Italy and the United Kingdom. In fact, when the epidemic hit Iran, I was finally aware of the extreme danger of this new virus. What I did not know yet was that the coronavirus would become physically close to me shortly. Everything changed again on February 20th.

The epidemic reaches Italy

On the 21st of February, a Friday, I was walking around London with a bunch of old Italian friends. I was very much looking forward to a break from the routine. The visit of a friend from my hometown was a fantastic occasion for a nice weekend in the metropolis.

I remember distinctively when we all got the same news alerts on our smartphones. A 38-year old man from a small town less than 50 miles from ours was put in intensive care after being tested positive for coronavirus. The news was shocking. We heard of some cases before – a couple of Chinese tourists was hospitalized in Rome days before – but Mattia was the first Italian diagnosed. If this was not scary enough, the patient had been a healthy jogger with no underlying pathologies. And he lived close to our hometown.

We all spent hours on the phone with families back in Italy that weekend. I was in total denial. London was calm and surprisingly less crowded than usual, but Londoners did not seem bothered by the virus at all. My assumption was consequential. If London – a hyperconnected city at the centre of the world – was tranquil, there was no reason to worry. I was sure that the first Italian case was a very unfortunate but isolated event. By February 28th, the number of cases in Italy had surpassed one thousand. The epidemic was physically closest than ever before to my loved ones.

No storm in the English Channel yet

Learning how to accept and live with an epidemic that hits your country when you are not physically there, but your mind is constantly with your family and friends who are in the middle of the storm, is difficult and strenuous.

The first three weeks of March were an almost dystopian experience. The number of cases and the death toll were on a sharp rise in Italy, with the region where I am from among the worst-hit areas of the country. My family was caught in an increasingly more stringent lockdown. Nevertheless, my father, a psychiatrist, kept working in the hospital despite the growing risk. In fact, the scarcity of PPE was exacerbated by the very nature of psychiatric patients, whose attitude towards social distancing may vary considerably. I saw him becoming every day more stressed and overwhelmed by the situation.

It may sound paradoxical, but what made everything worse was the sense of substantial normality and calm I was experiencing in Durham. Yes, the University closed down in the middle of March, and I started self-isolating myself since then. My life, at that point, was not much different from that of my beloved family in Italy, except that everything around me was going on pretty much as usual. I went shopping wearing a mask and disposable gloves to find myself the only one using them in an overcrowded Tesco on a Saturday morning. I declined offers to go for a pint before the pubs were shutdown. The sense of disconnection between my life – already attuned to that of my family in Italy – and the reality around me was increasingly strange. It seemed that I was already living a storm that had not yet passed the English Channel, let alone reached the North East region of England. 

Coming back to Italy

At the end of the first half of March, people my family knew started dying because of coronavirus. Not only elders but people of the age of my mum and dad. While the lockdown was beginning in the UK, Italy had already closed all its airports except Rome Fiumicino and Milano Malpensa. Rumours were that Alitalia, the only airline still connecting London to Italy, would have drastically reduced this special service at the beginning of April.

At that point, I was still convinced to stay in Durham until the storm had passed. However, the pressure from my family to have me back home grew quickly. I knew that the best choice, especially from a rational perspective, was not to embark on a long and potentially risky trip to the epicentre of the epidemic. But hearing my mum and dad asking every day if flying back wouldn’t have been the right choice was a clear call. They were suffering not having me down there. What worried me the most, however, was the idea that, if the worst happened, I would have been stuck in Durham without the chance to quickly reach them.

After days of thinking and thanks to the amazing help of my Durham family, I took the decision to fly back to Italy. On the 28th of March I took a completely empty train from Durham to London, I bought canned food in a spectacularly empty King’s Cross train station, and then I took the tube to Heathrow airport. The Alitalia flight to Italy was packed and we landed in Rome in the middle of the night. A Police agent checked my temperature. I was back to Italy but still a night in hotel and a three-hour train trip from home. The day after I took the only northbound train of the day, and, by lunchtime, I was in Parma.

Conclusion

I spent the next two weeks fully quarantined in my room. Basically, I did not meet my family until Easter. After the quarantine, however, I quickly enjoyed the fortune of having a little garden where to spend afternoons working and writing. But most of all, I was relieved by the artificial sensation of control given by being with my family. The storm is now reducing its malign power here, although it is still infuriating in the UK.

My days are marked by two appointments. Around 14:00 UK time, Sky News publishes the daily coronavirus death toll in Britain. At 17:00, Italian authorities publish the official figures from Italy. To an extent, it is a stressful and macabre habit, but numbers have the power to make me more tranquil. Knowing how the situation is evolving and improving in my two homes gives me huge motivation. However, incertitude remains high. I hate not knowing when I will be able to come back to Durham.

The Coronavirus pandemic is changing myself a lot. I still do not know where these changes will point to, but I feel them happening. This is probably the most beautiful and scary side effect of the storm.

Coronavirus and Me

Dan Wang

When I first noticed the coronavirus, I saw a video on Chinese Weibo of a girl arguing with her dad about him not wearing a mask. I felt something was happening but only limited to Wuhan or Hubei at largest. I followed the news online, but mentally I was distant from the situation.

However, as the situation became more serious, I began to worry about my family who were on holiday in Hainan. My whole family, grandma, mother, uncles, aunts, cousins, were immersed in the joy of traveling together for the first time in many years to the beautiful Chinese island of Hainan. Every day they shared videos with me of their experiences traveling to different places that were full of tourists. I was becoming slightly worried but did not want to spoil their fun. In the next few days, as the information of coronavirus spread online, their activities were gradually reduced, and sometimes they only took a walk nearby when there were not too many people. Later, in the early morning of Chinese New Year’s Eve, my mum called me and told me that they have booked the ticket to come back home the day after, although they were very reluctant to prematurely end the holiday they had planned for a long time. Due to the strict measures introduced by some provinces and cities to restrict the flow of people, they decided to go. There was no celebratory mood or even enough time to celebrate Chinese New Year as usual. Everybody started packing immediately.

They made the right decision. Due to the travel history of my family, they were all instructed to self-isolate for 14 days. Nobody disagreed with this instruction because everybody understood how serious the situation had been. My mum stayed at home for a total of 20 days. At first, I was very concerned about the questions such as how she could get food and what if she gets ill as she was alone at home. It turned out that there was staff from the Residents’ Committee (a grassroots organization of local government) and volunteers who were responsible for taking care of people’s daily life during the quarantine. Each block of the building has a leader and team members, who were not only responsible for buying food, household items, and other items such as thermometers, but also helped to dispose of household rubbish for residents. There was someone available 24 hours a day sitting in the entrance even though it was the coldest days in the year in my hometown. Over the phone, my mum said she doesn’t complain about her own situation when thinking about the staff and volunteers sitting outside cold and bored, while she is lying on the couch in the warm and nice home. She felt sorry for them, and sometimes she wanted to make a cup of hot tea or bring them hot food, yet she couldn’t do it for obvious reasons. Writing these thoughts down here whilst safe and comfortable at home in Durham, I also find myself full of appreciation for the sacrifice made by people who work on the frontline.

There are many criticisms and sceptical comments in the international community that the death toll of the Covid-19 reported by the Chinese government is much lower than the actual number. As far as I am concerned, the rapid and strict response measures made by the local government in my hometown to prevent the spread of the virus have been implemented in many places. I do believe that under such careful control, the actual number cannot be too different from what is reported.

During the hard time in China in the first two months, I was not physically influenced by this coronavirus as I was studying far away from China, but psychologically I was. I followed news and discussions on Chinese social media every day, and some of the issues particularly influenced my connection and thoughts on the situation.

The whistle-blower

The first thing is about the whistle-blower, whose name is Li Wenliang. You probably heard his story in major media. He was a doctor in a local hospital in Wuhan and one of the earliest people to notice the emergence of a new coronavirus and its potential danger of spreading from person-to-person interaction. He firstly passed his warning to a group chat on WeChat which was full of his classmates (colleagues). However, this information was quickly circulated on the Internet until it reached the attention of relevant government departments. Wuhan Municipal Public Security Bureau Wuchang Branch investigated Li Wenliang and firstly concluded that he created rumours that had a detrimental impact on society. Later, under the pressure of the public opinion and also the escalation of the coronavirus, the Chinese Supreme People’s Court announced that the eight Wuhan citizens (Dr Li and other seven people) should not have been punished as what they said was not entirely false. Tang Xinghua from the Chinese Supreme Court Judge even wrote an article stating that “It might have been a fortunate thing if the public had believed the ‘rumours’ then and started to wear masks and carry out sanitisation measures and avoid the wild animal market”.

However, the bravery and integrity of Dr Li did not save him from the coronavirus. He died on the 7th of February because of the coronavirus. His death triggered much grief, rage, and mistrust against the government among Chinese people, both domestically and outside China. People repeat his words of “there should be more than one voice in a healthy society”. Among all these articles mourning his death, I was deeply touched by one that revealed the normality of Dr Li’s life by highlighting his posts on Chinese Weibo. His Weibo shows that he was just a normal person who liked to watch popular dramas and football matches, participate in lottery events on Weibo and pray for good luck. He was not a social activist, he was not a politician, he was not even an opinion leader. All he did was to protect his beloved family, friends, and colleagues. May he rest in peace.

Fang Fang diary

Fang Fang is a writer who lives in Wuhan, China. In the early stage of the outbreak, Fang Fang, as a writer, took up her pen to record the pain, the lessons, and also the warm stories that this city was experiencing. In her diary, there is criticism and questioning of the policies and actions of the government, there is gratitude to the frontline medical staff, there is gratitude to the small shops that support and provide the necessities of people’s daily life, and there are also the problems of different families caused by the pandemic. One diary entry a day, and 60 in total from 25th of January 2020 to 25th of March 2020. At first, people supported and welcomed her writing and recording the events unfolding, people were longing for first-hand information from people who live in Wuhan city. However, this support stopped and divided since it was reported that her diary will be translated, published and sold abroad. A large number of people were outraged and labelled her as a traitor. They believe what she did was delivering a knife to the Western rivals since the international community already critiqued and suspected the accurate number of diagnoses and the actions the Chinese government imposed. They suspected that the diary was planned way ahead by Fang Fang and Western conspirators. They argued that a process like this could not be completed from translation to sale in such a short time unless it is planned beforehand despite it only showing as “pre-sale” on Amazon. They “put her on trial” online for ‘betraying’ the country and denied the effort of the whole country and people, and made China look bad on the international stage. Some argue that she is from a privileged background, and therefore should not be complaining about the situation. That raised my question that if she is a person with such privileges, then she indeed does not need to do such things to cause national hatred on her. She could have enjoyed more if she just remained silent. I felt a deep chill when I saw how divided the opinion imposed on her had become and could not help thinking that on the night of Dr Li’s death, people spoke out loudly and sound of the words “there should be more than one voice in a healthy society”. How ironic.

Real soft power towards both domestic and international audience

When the coronavirus started to become under control in China, the pandemic in places outside China escalated. My life has changed as well. Before, it was me who checked on my family and friends every day to make sure they are fine. Now, they are sending me messages to check if I am okay and if I need anything. They raised more concerns after the Prime Minister made a speech and mentioned a policy of herd immunity. They suggested that I should go back home since it is under better control in China. I had to explain that it is not as bad as they thought or as it showed on Chinese news. Personally, my life has not been changed too much, I spend most of the time at home reading and writing. Sometimes I take a walk in the hills or beside the river behind my student accommodation in Durham. But, I do understand why the news from the UK has caused so much concern. One of the reasons I guess is the reports and narratives on Chinese official media about the situation outside China. After the crisis in China had been controlled while other countries are now facing one, the tone of the Chinese government has changed as well. They started to acknowledge and praise the effectiveness and success of the Chinese government. Indeed, the government and people have put many resources, energy, and sacrifices into the battle with the coronavirus. However, the narratives they adopted especially the comparison they made between China’s success to other counties’ ineffective measures at the time was disgraceful. This set of narratives aiming to raise the domestic audience’s support of the government to increase their lost legitimacy at the beginning of the outbreak of the coronavirus was nothing new. 

The other day, on a virtual seminar talking about the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on China’s role in the world, I raised a question asking what is the impact of China’s good gestures such as its donations to other countries to support and help on its role? A person from the audience answered that, “China’s role has been very supportive, and generous as far as Pakistan cases are concerned. China is definitely a major power with Soft Power dynamics that will decisively impact post-coronavirus international politics.” True, as far as I saw, people from Xinjiang constituted a medical team sent to Pakistan and Tajikistan to help with the coronavirus crisis. No matter what political interests and intensions behind these, there is the tangible effort of ordinary Chinese people in it, which we should not deny. China is like a big person with strong muscles. However, it cannot fully utilize its big muscles due to its short-sightedness. I hope the government will not fail the Chinese people’s efforts and sacrifices and be a real great power with a real great power mentality.

The Coronavirus and Me

Irfan Azeez Azeez

In December 2019, a new form of virus-related pneumonia cases happened in Wuhan, Hubei area; and then called “2019 new coronavirus (2019-nCoV)” by the World Health Organization (WHO) on 12th of January 2020 (1). This is a huge group of viruses that affect human beings and many various types of creatures, including camels, cattle, cats, and bats. The virus that causes Covid-19 is affecting families and spreading easily between individuals. The Covid-19 cases have been found in almost all residential settings worldwide, and the spread is being detected in an increasing number of countries. On March 11th, the Covid-19 plague was described as a pandemic by the WHO (2).

It will be appropriate to mention a few cases where the coronavirus has affected my progress. First, my presentation slated for the 4th day of March 2020 at the Centre for strategic Studies of the Kurdistan Democratic Party in Erbil City was postponed because of the recent pandemic and measures to curb the spread of the pandemic. Second, I was invited to attend and participate at the Erbil forum on security and the root causes of terrorism in Iraq on the 10th of March 2020, but it was cancelled due to the pandemic. Third, all efforts to return to the UK in March proved futile because of the restrictions on movement put in place to curb the spread of the virus. Fourth, during the lockdown in my hometown, I volunteered to serve a humanitarian charity organization called (Barzani Charity Foundation) that helps change lives of the poor – those families that cannot get enough food because they lost a daily or weekly job during the lockdown. Public health awareness initiatives for those families in the villages around Erbil city in Kurdistan was also conducted. We are also providing posters to the villagers with the message ‘stay home and save lives’ for the same reason. 

What the Kurdistan Region is doing to keep Kurdistan safe from Covid-19

The current total number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the Kurdistan Region is 413 of the residents who returned from Iran and other countries. The potential and confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the Kurdistan Region is shown in figure 1. (3)

Figure1: Potential and confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Kurdistan Region

To maintain the Kurdistan Region as secure as possible from the coronavirus, the following actions have been put in place by the KRG and related departments. (3)

• Extension of total curfew inside the cities of Erbil and Sulaimaniyah for 72 hours, effective at (12:00) Sunday midnight, March 15, 2020.
• Imposition of total curfew inside the cities of Erbil and Sulaimaniyah was effective for 48-hours starting at 12:00 midnight on Friday until 12:00 midnight 1st of May 2020. 
• Authorizing the governors of Sulaimaniyah and Erbil to reorganize the supply mechanism of people’s needs without undoing the above article of this announcement.
• People must stay in their homes to allow medical teams to carry out their mission. Upon any suspicion, citizens were advised to call 122 and suspected cases were instructed to stay put until medical teams reached them.

The KRG declared that all types of public meetings, including Friday prayer sermons, were banned in mosques and churches in Erbil, Duhok, Sulaymaniyah and Halabja up until a further notice (4).

The KRG stated that the last deadline for people’s arrival to the Kurdistan Region from Iran is twelve midnight of Monday, March 16, 2020, beyond which all crossing points will be closed to travellers except for trade at the following designated border crossings: Parwezkhan, Haji Omran, Ibrahim Khalil, and Bashmakh. Also, those returnees must immediately report to the medical teams for appropriate health check-ups. “Failing to do so will lead to mandatory quarantine and prosecution under the law for the intentional spread of the virus and illegal border crossing”. (5)

The KRG also confirmed that, Iraqi and overseas residents that have travelled to the following countries in the past 30 days will undertake tests and be quarantined for a duration agreed by the Health Ministry (3). The KRG ordered the general board of tourism to close all tourist resorts, cancel all sports events until st of May, and ban flights from the Kurdistan Region’s airports to Baghdad and Basra from the 14th of March to the 1st of May, exempting diplomats, official delegations, and UN and coalition delegations.

In conclusion, further incidents of Covid-19 are expected to be found in the KRG in the next weeks, including additional cases of people who returned from Iran and other countries. Therefore, it seems clear that extensive transmission of Covid-19 may possibly turn into large numbers of people in KRG requiring health care at the same time. In the coming months, most of the global population will be exposed to this virus and need to work together to tackle the global problem to save humanity.

President Nechirvan Barzani held a press conference about Covid-19 on April 20, 2020 and said:

I understand that many of our people need to work to support their families, yet the issue is bigger than this. At present, the KRG is prioritizing life over work.(6)

Below I highlight several impacts of coronavirus on people, cities and economy in KRG:

• The Kurdistan Region is strongly reliant on revenue from oil and gas extraction, agriculture and tourism and all these sectors have been affected during Covid-19. For example, the price of oil dramatically decreased, which affected employees’ salaries. The KRG is not able to distribute the public sector salaries. That is what could lead to economic recessions and famine in the region in the long term. 
• The tourism sector was also affected at this time because KRG closed borders with Iran, Turkey, Syria and all Arab cities in Iraq. 
• Most families are dependent on daily wages, low paid, or insecure work. Many have lost their jobs because of the Covid-19 epidemic. A lockdown for poor families can have dreadful consequences. Thus, leading to missing work, missing meals, making it hard to meet the essential needs for their children such as food, milk, etc.. However, the KRG and charity organizations distribute food for the poor families, refugees but that is not enough. Therefore, low income families, refugees, disabled people are more vulnerable than any other groups during outbreaks in the region (7). 
• The Islamic State began several attacks in Iraq's disputed areas such as in Makmur, Hawija, Garmean in April during the lockdown (7). "The Islamic State, which has been on the back foot for years now, is eager to move back into this vacuum, aided by the coronavirus-expedited withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops in support of the Iraqi military. So is Iran, which controls substantial numbers of Iraqi militias and is dominant in the Shiite-led national government. The outcome, many Iraqis now worry, may be that their country becomes a new battleground between the Sunni Islamic State and Shiite Iran".(8). 

The total number of Covid-19 confirmed cases in Iraq are 3,404. The possible and confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Iraq is shown in figure 2 (9).

                                                           Figure 2: Potential and confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Iraq Region (9)

The unexpected outbreak of the virus in the neighbouring Islamic Republic of Iran scaled up the risk of the virus blow-out in Iraq and needed faster prevention and contagion control measures especially in the holy cities and pilgrimage sites, nearby governorates, and vulnerable communities in internally displaced and refugee camps. (9)

Primary mobilization campaigns to deliver WHO Covid-19 educational supplies succeeded in raising public consciousness and preparing readiness and energies to protect individual health and that of the community in general.

Citizens' unprotected behaviour during the partial lockdown and their noncompliance with WHO & MOH recommendations will delay Iraq's efforts to reduce the transmission of the #COVID-19 and necessitate the application of firmer measures to contain the spread of the virus”, said WHO on its Twitter page (10).

While the Iraq lockdown to stop the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic was enforced and the US reduced its military attendance in the Middle East, the Islamic State (IS) has not paired down its activities. Moreover, the group’s rebirth appears to be fully-fledged (11). Therefore, it seems clear that focusing on the coronavirus as the crucial threat the new Iraqi cabinet diverts attention from an even greater danger that faces the country.

References

1. Jin, Y.H., Cai, L., Cheng, Z.S., Cheng, H., Deng, T., Fan, Y.P., Fang, C., Huang, D., Huang, L.Q., Huang, Q. and Han, Y., 2020. A rapid advice guideline for the diagnosis and treatment of 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) infected pneumonia (standard version). Military Medical Research, 7(1), p.4.
2. Covid-19: Situation Update, Kurdistan Regional Government.  https://gov.krd/coronavirus-en/situation-update/ 
3. Data include confirmed cases of Covid-19 reported by the Ministry of Health (MOH) since 1 March 2020. https://gov.krd/coronavirus-en/situation-update/#situation-summary
4. Javad, A. and al-Hussein, A., Curfew imposed in Iraq’s Kurdistan region over Covid-19, Anadolu Agency, 13 March 2020. https://www.aa.com.tr/en/latest-on-coronavirus-outbreak/curfew-imposed-in-iraqs-kurdish-region-over-covid-19/1765554
5. Shilani, H., KRG extends curfew by 72 hours as authorities report more coronavirus cases, Kurdistan 24, 15 March 2020.  https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/bc2cc3cc-5076-4416-83f9-ac8dcc8551b5
6. President Nechirvan Barzani holds a press conference, President of the Kurdistan Region – Iraq, 20 April 2020. https://president.gov.krd/en/president-nechirvan-barzani-holds-a-press-conference/
7. Lucente, A., Islamic State steps up attack in Iraq during coronavirus lockdown, Al Monitor, 21 April 2020. https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/04/is-attacks-iraq-coronavirus-lockdown.html
8. Magid, P., Islamic State Aims for Comeback Amid Virus-Expedited U.S. Withdrawal, Foreign Policy, 6 April 2020. https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/04/06/iraq-islamic-state-comeback-coronavirus-us-withdrawal 
9. The fight to contain Covid-19 in Iraq, World Health Organization, 1 April 2020.  http://www.emro.who.int/irq/iraq-news/the-fight-to-contain-covid-19-in-iraq.html
10. Najari, K., Covid-19 updates: Iraq infections up by 77; KRG reports no new cases, Kurdistan 24, 3 May 2020. https://www.kurdistan24.net/en/news/93fa16bd-9b35-42de-9f70-a45985e3797c
11. Ghafuri, L., ISIS attacks in Iraq and Syria show pandemic isn’t slowing the insurgency, Rudaw, 10 April 2020. https://www.rudaw.net/english/middleeast/100420201

Photo by Vlada Karpovich from Pexels