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MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 03rd March, 2020) Five new cases of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) have been confirmed in Iraq, the country's Health Ministry said on Monday.

"The Ministry of Health and Environment of Iraq have registered five newly confirmed coronavirus cases, three of them in Baghdad, one in [the province of] Maysan, and the fifth one in [the province of] Najaf," the ministry said in a statement posted on Facebook.

This makes the country's total number of infected 26.

COVID-19 was first detected in China in late December and has since spread to more than 50 countries, prompting the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare a global health emergency. So far, the virus has infected more than 89,000 people worldwide, with over 3,000 people having died and more than 45,000 recovered.