CAIRO, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) -- Egypt reported on Sunday 178 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total cases registered in the country since the outbreak of the pandemic to 95,492, said the Egyptian Health Ministry.
Although the number marks a slight increase in daily infections in a week, it is still the eighth consecutive day for Egypt's COVID-19 daily infections to fall below 200.
The daily count started to exceed 200 on April 23 before hitting a record 1,774 on June 19.
Meanwhile, 17 patients died from the novel coronavirus, marking the lowest single-day fatalities in the country since May 26 and bringing the death toll to 5,009, said Egypt's Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed.
Megahed added that 1,006 coronavirus patients were cured and discharged from hospital in the past 24 hours, increasing the total recoveries to 52,678.
Egypt has recently banned anyone from entering the country without a recent PCR test that proves they are free from COVID-19, except for tourists arriving via direct flights to the airports of Sharm El-Sheikh, Hurghada, Taba and Marsa Alam.
The most populous Arab country announced its first confirmed COVID-19 case on Feb. 14 and the first death from the highly infectious virus on March 8.
From the first week of July, daily new coronavirus fatalities and infections in Egypt started to gradually decline along with an increase in daily recoveries.
Egypt resumed international flights in early July, after it lifted a partial nighttime curfew imposed since late March, and reopened restaurants, cafes, theaters and cinemas, as well as hotels, museums and archeological sites, all with limited capacity.
Easing restrictions is part of a "coexistence plan" adopted by the government over the past weeks to maintain anti-coronavirus precautionary measures while resuming economic activities.
Egypt and China have been cooperating closely in fighting the pandemic through exchanging medical aid and expertise.
In early February, Egypt provided aid to China to help with its fight against COVID-19 and China later sent three batches of medical aid to the North African country. Enditem
