The first cases of the coronavirus variant known as Delta have been confirmed in the Kurdistan Region as COVID-19 infections continue to rise across Iraq.

Kurdistan Region Health Minister Saman Barzinji said in a press conference on Thursday that cases of the Delta variant had been identified. Delta is believed to be more contagious than other variants of the novel coronavirus that cause COVID-19, and has overtaken earlier variants as the primary concern for unvaccinated people.

The health official did not specify how many cases of the highly contagious variant his ministry had identified or when they were detected. 

Earlier the ministry said that they had purchased the testing kits to detect cases of the delta variant. 

The delta variant was first identified in India, where it is believed to have caused a surge in COVID-19 infections and deaths. It has since overtaken the UK variant to become the predominant strain there and has been identified in 104 countries. 

It has been called a “variant of concern," and top medical bodies, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), have stressed the importance of vaccination to stop the spread.

The Kurdistan Region has embarked on a vaccination drive but only about four percent of its 6 million residents are fully vaccinated, according to the latest official tally on immunization. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, the Kurdistan Region had recorded over 198,000 cases of coronavirus, including 4,500 deaths.

Kurdistan 24