Baghdad, Jun 21 (IANS): Iraq's Health Ministry declared a new wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, with 515 new cases reported in the past 24 hours.

"There is a noticeable increase in the positive cases during the past few days, as well as an increase in the number of infected people in hospitals, which means that Iraq has entered a new pandemic wave," the Ministry said in a statement.

It said that the resurgence of infections is an inevitable result of many people not receiving Covid-19 vaccines despite their availability in all health centre in Baghdad and other provinces, as well as the non-adherence to health-protective measures, reports Xinhua news agency.

The Ministry called for speedier vaccination and returning to individual and societal protective measures.

The new infections have raised the nationwide caseload to 2,332,692, while the death toll stood at 25,229.

A total of 18,691,060 tests have been carried out in Iraq since the outbreak of the disease in early 2020, with 6,317 done in the last 24 hours.

A total of 14,420 people were vaccinated in the same period, bringing the total number of doses administered to 10,797,872, according to the Ministry.