CAIRO, Aug. 13 (Xinhua) -- Egypt's Health Ministry confirmed on Thursday 145 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total cases to 96,108.
It is the 12th day in a row for Egypt's COVID-19 daily infections to fall below 200, after they started to exceed 200 on April 23 until hitting a record 1,774 cases on June 19.
Meanwhile, 22 patients died from the novel coronavirus on Thursday, bringing the death toll to 5,107, while 989 others were cured and discharged from hospitals, increasing the total recoveries to 56,890, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said.
He emphasized Egypt's close cooperation with the World Health Organization in combating the pandemic.
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 fatalities and infections in Egypt started to gradually decline along with rise in daily recoveries.
Last week, Egypt decided to ban anyone from entering the country without a recent PCR test that proves they are free from COVID-19, except for tourists coming via direct flights to the airports of Sharm El-Sheikh, Hurghada, Taba and Marsa Alam.
Egypt and China have been working together on 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
