CAIRO, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Egypt witnessed on Saturday a new record of 28 single-day fatalities of COVID-19, bringing the death toll in country to 735, said the Egyptian Health Ministry.
The country also confirmed 727 new cases infected with the novel coronavirus, raising the total infections registered in Egypt since mid-February to 16,513, the ministry's spokesman Khaled Megahed said in a statement.
Megahed noted that 254 coronavirus patients were completely cured and discharged from hospitals on Saturday, increasing the total recoveries to 4,628.
He stressed Egypt's close cooperation and coordination with the World Health Organization regarding COVID-19 case detection and 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 of whom were foreigners.
Over the past 30 days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the most populous Arab country implemented a nationwide nine-hour nighttime curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time to curb the spread of the virus.
From May 24, which marks the beginning of the post-Ramadan Eid al-Fitr holiday, the evening curfew will be 13 hours instead of nine, for six days, to maintain social distancing and avoid gatherings amid the increasing number of COVID-19 infections.
After the Islamic holiday, from May 30, the curfew will be reduced from 13 to 10 hours for two weeks and then, the government will consider from mid-June easing restrictions and gradually resuming several suspended activities.
Egypt has already started easing restrictions and gradually reopening services and offices that have been halted since mid-March amid the government's "coexistence plan" to maintain anti-coronavirus precautionary measures while resuming services, businesses and economic activities.
Egypt and China join hands in fighting COVID-19 through mutual support and exchange of medical aid and expertise.
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.
On Thursday, Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang said that Chinese companies in Egypt take strict precautionary measures to maintain their work momentum in different projects amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Enditem
