Airports and public administrations were closed, exams were suspended, and regarding 4,000 people entered hospitals in Iraq, following a new dust storm hit the country, which has been under the weight of similar storms for nearly a month.
Layers of yellow sand covered the buildings and cars parked in the streets and furniture of homes on Monday morning, while thick clouds of dust obscured view only for a few meters.
And the spokesman for the Ministry of Health, Saif Al-Badr, announced in a statement that the number of suffocation cases reached 4,000, “all of whom received the necessary health care.”
And Baghdad Airport decided at the beginning of the followingnoon to resume its flights, following suspending them early Monday due to “the visibility of the range reached 300 meters” only, and suspended Najaf airport flights in the south, and Sulaymaniyah in the Kurdistan region in the north.
Seven of Iraq’s eighteen governorates also suspended official working hours in public administrations, with the exception of health departments, especially in the capital, Baghdad, in Diwaniyah in the south, and Diyala and Kirkuk in the north.
Also, all schools in the country were closed and exams postponed until Tuesday.
The storm is supposed to gradually recede from Monday evening, according to the Iraqi Meteorological Administration.