CAIRO, Sept. 19 (Xinhua) -- Egypt confirmed on Friday night 131 new COVID-19 cases, raising the country's total infections to 101,772, said its Health Ministry.
In a statement, the ministry's spokesman Khaled Megahed said 18 patients died from the disease in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 5,733.
Meanwhile, 800 others were cured and discharged from hospitals, increasing the total recoveries to 87,958.
Egypt announced its first confirmed COVID-19 case on Feb. 14 and the first death from the viral disease on March 8.
Around mid-June, Egypt saw a peak of COVID-19 daily infections and deaths, and then both started to gradually decline in the first week of July.
Amid declining COVID-19 infections and fatalities as well as increasing recoveries, Egypt has been easing relevant restrictions over the past couple of months as part of a coexistence plan to maintain anti-coronavirus precautionary measures while resuming economic activities.
Egypt and China have been working together on fighting the pandemic through exchanging medical aid and expertise.
In early February, Egypt sent a batch of medical supplies 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
