BEIJING, May 19 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
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CAIRO -- Egypt sent on Tuesday a military plane loaded with medical supplies and medicines to South Sudan to help the African state with its battle against COVID-19, the Egyptian armed forces said in a statement.
"The medical aid was sent under instructions of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi to show solidarity with South Sudan in its confrontation of the virus," Tamer al-Refai, spokesperson of the army said in a statement.
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BRUSSELS -- Belgium recorded 232 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, confirming the downward trajectory observed for more than seven days, reported a statement released Tuesday by the public health institute Sciensano.
In the same 24-hour period, 50 new hospitalizations have been recorded and 30 healed people have left hospitals. A total of 345 patients are currently in intensive care, up by 3 from a day earlier.
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DOHA -- Qatar's health ministry on Tuesday announced 1,637 new infections of the COVID-19, increasing the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 35,606.
"Seven-hundred and thirty-five people recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 5,634, while the fatalities remain 15," the official Qatar News Agency reported, quoting a ministry statement.
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MOSCOW -- Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, previously tested positive for COVID-19, has been discharged from hospital and resumed work, Sputnik reported on Tuesday, citing his spokesman Boris Belyakov.
Mishustin on Tuesday held an online meeting at his office in the government house and is preparing for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Belyakovz said.
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SUVA -- The heads of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) on Tuesday urged the international community to work together to battle COVID-19.
Speaking in a joint statement issued on Tuesday, Georges Rebelo Pinto Chikoti, secretary-general of OACPS, Irwin LaRocque, secretary-general of CARICOM and Dame Meg Taylor, secretary-general of the Suva-based PIF said the global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic impact on the entire world population requires the global community to work together to address the consequences to human health and disruptive effects on an interconnected world economy.
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MANILA -- Chinese business companies have stood firmly behind the Philippines in the fight against COVID-19, donating nearly 10 million pesos (197,078 U.S. dollars) and nearly 3 million pieces of much-needed medical supplies to stop the spread of the epidemic, China's Ambassador Huang Xilian said.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, Chinese firms have donated 2.65 million medical masks, 250,000 pieces of protective suits, gloves, and goggles to the Philippines, according to Huang.
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KIEV -- A total of 18,876 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 548 deaths were reported in Ukraine on Tuesday, while 5,632 patients have recovered, the country's health ministry reported on its official website.
There are 1,348 children and 3,696 health workers diagnosed with COVID-19 since the beginning of the epidemic. 260 new patients tested positive for coronavirus in Ukraine over the past 24 hours.
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KUALA LUMPUR -- The number of new COVID-19 cases in Malaysia outpaced the recoveries for a second day in a row after another 37 new cases were reported, pushing the national total to 6,978 cases, the Health Ministry said on Tuesday.
Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said at a press briefing that of the new cases, 35 were local transmissions and two were imported cases. Enditem
