The COVID-19 pandemic has driven dozens of families in Iraq into a worse poverty situation, and people short of income have been skimping on food.

The scene of shuttering stores in Baghdad district is reminding the citizens of past traumas that destroyed their families. 

"For two years, I have squatted at a friend's to save rent and gave all my earnings to my sick wife and children in Turkey," Abdul Wahhab Qassim told Reuters, a 46-year-old day laborer. "Since the coronavirus lockdown, there's no work. I can offer my family nothing."

A growing number of neighbors who do casual labor like Qassim or run other small businesses have watched their income down to zero.

Without any other choice, they have to wait for the free evening meals donated by families at the local mosque during the holy month of Ramadan.

Iraq has faced the same dilemma as much as other countries: weather to lift the restriction or to maintain the lockdown.

Recently, the Iraqi authorities have announced the lifting during the daytime while published several new fines if citizens breaking it.

With the mosque closed, people gather to pray, shake hands and break the Ramadan very quickly at shopfronts each night.

Ikhlas Majeed, who cooks the food in her small kitchen, told Reuters that there are more families in need than ever.

These people, earning money in a day running stores or doing laboring, have no steady income, Majeed said.

Israa Khalil, whose husband and two brothers were all passed away several years ago, has raised her two children with money from a state fund paid to her mother. However, her mother died this March, and the compensation is no more paid.

Without any income, she has owed money to local stories, including a grocery whose income has dropped to a quarter.

Iraq, so far, avoiding a catastrophic spread of the COVID-19, registered around 2,200 confirmed cases and less than 100 deaths, according to its health ministry.

The World Health Organization says Iraq should maintain the lockdown.

(With input from agencies)