PMU pitches in as COVID cases surge in Iraq
Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units, including those of populist cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, have plugged gaps in Iraq’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as cases surge and well-known fighters fall ill.
Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) have rehabilitated a hospital, buried victims, sprayed public places with disinfectant and delivered oxygen in recent weeks as part of the nationwide efforts against the COVID-19 pandemic.
From a few dozen recorded deaths per day on June 11 to almost 100 per day a month later, COVID-19 cases continue to rise in the country amid worsening poverty, unemployment and financial hardship.
On July 2, the International Rescue Committee noted, “With the number of confirmed cases standing at 53,708 on July 1 — up from 6,868 on June 1 — the Ministry of Health has announced that hospitals are almost at full capacity” and “schools and universities will be converted into isolation units.”
Dr. Jawad al-Musawi, a parliamentarian from Baghdad’s impoverished Sadr City, told Al-Monitor in a July 12 Whatsapp message that Muqtada Sadr’s PMU faction Saraya Salam had “given their largest headquarters in Iraq to the Ministry of Health” to be used to fight COVID-19, rehabilitated a 317-bed hospital and taken part in campaigns to reduce the spread of the virus among the poor.
