CAIRO, May 20 (Xinhua) -- Egypt witnessed on Wednesday a daily record of 745 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total cases registered in the country since mid-February to 14,229.
It is the second consecutive day for Egypt's new COVID-19 cases to exceed 700.
Meanwhile, 21 patients died from the novel coronavirus on Wednesday, raising the death toll in Egypt to 680, Egyptian Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said in a statement.
In addition, 252 more COVID-19 patients were cured and discharged from hospitals on Wednesday, increasing total recoveries to 3,994, Megahed added.
He highlighted Egypt's close cooperation with the World Health Organization regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, the case detection and the necessary medical care.
Egypt announced its first confirmed COVID-19 infection on Feb. 14 and the first death from the pandemic on March 8, both foreigners.
The most populous Arab country is currently implementing a nationwide nine-hour curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. during the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan that ends on May 23.
Starting May 24, the first day of the post-Ramadan Eid al-Fitr holiday, the evening curfew will be 13 hours for six days in order to maintain social distancing and avoid gatherings amid the rise in the number of the COVID-19 cases.
From May 30, the curfew will be reduced to 10 hours from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. for two weeks, before the cabinet will consider further easing restrictions and gradually resuming suspended activities.
The Egyptian government has recently started to ease restrictions and gradually reopened services and offices that have been halted since mid-March amid a coexistence plan to maintain anti-coronavirus precautionary measures while resuming services, businesses and economic activities.
On May 16, the Egyptian authorities received the third batch of medical aid from the Chinese government to help the North African country with its fight against the COVID-19 epidemic. Enditem
