Roundup: COVID-19 cases exceed 60,000 in Iran as Turkey's total surges past 30,000

Source: Xinhua| 2020-04-07 05:26:55|Editor: huaxia

CAIRO, April 6 (Xinhua) -- The number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Iran rose by 2,274 to reach 60,500 on Monday, the sixth consecutive day of slowdown in a row.

A total of 3,739 COVID-19 patients have died in Iran as of Monday, and 24,236 have recovered and left hospitals, with 4,083 still in critical condition.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday that the government plans to provide loans for 4 million low-income Iranian households to deal with their losses over the COVID-19 outbreak.

He said a relief package worth 16.5 billion euros (17.8 billion U.S. dollars) has also been allocated to businesses damaged by the outbreak of the pandemic.

Ali Akbar Velayati, head of Iran's Masih Daneshvari Hospital, said Iran has started producing antiviral drug favipiravir for the first time in the country to treat COVID-19 patients.

"Fortunately, favipiravir was produced for the first time at Shahid Beheshti Medical University's School of Pharmacy and has been made available to Masih Daneshvari Hospital ... to be used for treatment of coronavirus patients," Velayati said.

In Turkey, the second hardest-hit country in the Middle East, 3,148 new COVID-19 cases were reported on Monday, bringing the total number to 30,217, and the death toll surged to 649.

A total of 1,415 patients are treated in intensive care units and 966 more are intubated, he said, noting the total recoveries are 1,326.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkey will build two hospitals in the country's biggest city Istanbul for COVID-19 patients.

The hospitals will be constructed in the Ataturk Airport area on the European side of the city and Sancaktepe district on the Asian side.

"Their constructions will be completed within 45 days," Erdogan said, adding each of them will have a capacity of 1,000 beds.

The president pointed out that Turkey's health system surpassed an important threshold by implementing 20,000 COVID-19 tests per day.

Erdogan on April 3 announced a series of strong measures to contain the coronavirus outbreak in the country, declaring a partial curfew for the citizens under the age of 20 and closing the borders of 31 out of 81 provinces across the country.

Iraqi Health Ministry said on Monday that the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has climbed to 1,031 by an increase of 70, and the death toll reached 64 in the country.

The Iraqi authorities have taken several measures to contain the outbreak of COVID-19, including extending a nationwide curfew until April 19.

In Egypt, 149 new coronavirus cases were reported on Monday, bringing the total number to 1,322, with 85 fatalities after seven new deaths were added.

In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), 241 new COVID-19 cases, were reported on Monday, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 2,076.

Farida Al Hosani, spokeswoman of the UAE health sector, said the new cases of different nationalities are all in stable condition and receiving medical treatment.

She also confirmed one more death, pushing the country's death toll to 11.

In Qatar, a total of 279 new infections of COVID-19 were reported, bringing the total confirmed cases to 1,604, the ministry of public health said.

Palestine declared on Monday the full lockdown of four villages in the West Bank, as the COVID-19 cases has climbed to 252 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Israel was in lockdown with 8,904 people diagnosed with the virus and 57 deaths.

It is worth noting that a coronavirus testing lab will be set up by Israeli medical tech company AID Genomics in collaboration with Chinese biotech giant BGI Genomics in the Palestinian city of Gaza.

AID Genomics said the emergency testing laboratory, approved by both Israeli and Palestinian authorities, will perform up to 3,000 COVID-19 tests daily for Gazan residents.

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