BEIJING, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The following are the updates on the global fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
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TEHRAN -- Iran reported on Friday 2,206 new COVID-19 cases over the past 24 hours, taking the total number in the country to 354,764.
Overnight, 112 people died in Iran from the virus, taking the death toll to 20,376, according to figures provided by The Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education on its website.
Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for the ministry, said during her daily briefing that so far, 305,866 patients have recovered and 3,794 are in critical condition.
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YEREVAN -- Armenia on Friday reported 158 new COVID-19 cases in the last day, bringing its total caseload to 42,477, according to the National Center for Disease Control.
Data from the center showed that 217 more patients have recovered in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 34,655.
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HELSINKI -- Finland has decided to take part in the joint European Union (EU) agreement to purchase coronavirus vaccines and informed the European Commission of its decision on Friday, the Finnish Ministry of Social Affairs and Health said in a statement.
The European Commission has said that it will have a contractual framework in place for the initial purchase of 225 million doses of coronavirus vaccines on behalf of all EU member states, to be supplied once a vaccine has proven to be safe and effective against COVID-19.
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BAGHDAD -- Iraqi Deputy Health Minister Hazim al-Jumaili Friday warned of the collapse of the country's health infrastructure if the infections continued to increase, while the Health Ministry reported 4,288 new COVID-19 cases.
Al-Jumaili made his comment in a press release when he told the Iraqi citizens who do not abide by the preventive health measures that the health sector infrastructure could not bear a further increase in coronavirus infections.
"The health institutions in Iraq is in trouble, so citizens must abide by the preventive health instructions," al-Jumaili said.
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NAIROBI -- Until three months ago, COVID-19 infections were largely concentrated in Kenya's capital Nairobi, its neighborhoods and the coastal city of Mombasa.
However, the lifting of restriction of movement in and out of the capital Nairobi and the coastal city of Mombasa on July 7 has seen infections gather pace in rural counties, with many of the regions now having more than double-digit cases, according to data from the Ministry of Health.
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JUBA -- A team of medical experts sent by the Chinese government to South Sudan on Friday embarked on experience sharing with their local counterparts in a bid to strengthen the east African nation's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since arriving in South Sudan on Wednesday, the Chinese medical expert team shared experience with frontline health workers and members of the country's COVID-19 taskforce headed by Vice President for Service Cluster, Hussein Abdelbagi.
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MALE -- Maldives will import 10,000 new COVID-19 test kits in order to expand testing capacity, local media citing the Health Emergency Operation Center (HEOC) reported here Friday.
HEOC Spokesperson Dr. Nazla Rafeeq was quoted by state media as saying that the country has 15,000 PCR test kits in stock. The current stock was sufficient to meet testing demands for the next two weeks, as each kit was capable of conducting 200 tests, Rafeeq said.
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HONG KONG -- As the support from the central government has boosted its testing capacity, Hong Kong will start a mass screening for COVID-19 on Sept. 1 and aims to complete the testing in no more than two weeks in an effort to bring the severe epidemic situation under control.
Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) Carrie Lam announced the plan on Friday at a press conference. Enditem
