1COVID-19 Mortality in Kerbala-Iraq

Abstract

Background: COVID 19 pandemic hit the world in December 2019 and flourished to almost all countries in the following two years killing millions and billions were infected and impact on life and health. All people are affected, but augmented in those suffering chronic non-communicable diseases. Objective: To describes the main epidemiological features of COVIUD-19 in Kerbala/Iraq during three years period. Methods: All records of confirmed cases of COVID-19 over three-year period of time (2020-2022) were included. Data were compiled in an inventory containing numbers of cases confirmed by the Iraqi Ministry Of Health official outlets supported other available sources to affirm the consistency in numbers of daily cases. Epidemic curves, tables and figures were prepared using Excel sheets. Results: A total of 97396 cases were reported. The annual distribution showed that most cases (59.7%) were in 2021 and August represented the month with greatest incidence where 26.8% of total cases happened. Males formed about 60% of the cases and the mean age of patients was 37.42±15.39 years. The case fatality of COVID 19 in Kerbala governorate was 0.99%. While 0.15 % of total patients were reported to have reinfection with COVID 19. While only 4756 patients (4.9%) had received at least one dose of the vaccine. Conclusion: The behavior of COVID-19 in Iraq as elsewhere in the world is difficult to understand. The characteristic fluctuations are likely to reflect factors related to virus behavior, population behavior and public health interventions.