CAIRO, Mar 4 (NNN-MENA) – The Iraqi health ministry reported yesterday, 5,173 new COVID-19 cases, the highest daily increase since the outbreak of the disease in Feb, 2020. Meanwhile, Iran called on its people to refrain from travelling, during the two-week holiday of the Iranian New Year, starting Mar 21, given the pandemic.
Iraq so far confirmed a total of 708,951 coronavirus cases in the country. It also reported 25 new fatalities yesterday, raising the death toll to 13,483, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 3,463 to 646,619.
A statement by the media office of Iraqi Prime Minister, Mustafa al-Kadhimi, said, the Higher Committee for Health and National Safety, decided to task the health ministry with evaluating the epidemiological situation and present a report on whether to continue the curfew.
In Iran, the overall number of cases grew to 1,656,699, after 8,525 new infections were detected in the past 24 hours, while the pandemic has so far claimed 60,353 Iranian lives, up by 86 in the past 24 hours, according to Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for the Iranian health ministry.
She said, 764 patients were hospitalised in the past 24 hours, adding 11 Iranian counties in the south-western province of Khuzestan are still on red alert for a high risk of infection.
As the hardest-hit country in the Middle East, Turkey reported 11,520 new COVID-19 cases yesterday, including 689 symptomatic ones, raising the total confirmed number in the country to 2,734,836.
In addition, 65 people died in the past 24 hours, taking the death toll to 28,771, while the number of the total recoveries has risen to 2,593,264.
According to the Turkish health ministry, more than 9.43 million doses of China’s COVID-19 vaccines have been administered across Turkey by yesterday.
Israel’s Ministry of Health reported 4,173 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, raising the total tally in the country to 788,869, while the death toll from the virus rose to 5,802 , with 16 new fatalities added.
The number of people vaccinated in Israel surpassed 4.83 million, or 51.9 percent of its total population, since the vaccination campaign began on Dec 20, 2020.
Palestine reported 2,017 new cases and 15 fatalities, raising the total number of infections in the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem to 214,502 and the death toll to 2,296.
It is the seventh consecutive day that the number of the single-day new cases has exceeded 1,500 in Palestine, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Morocco reported 594 new cases and eight deaths yesterday, raising the tally of infections to 484,753, and the death toll to 8,653 in the North African country.
A total of 3,745,173 people received the first vaccine shot in Morocco, and 360,689 received the second dose, since a nationwide vaccination campaign on Jan 28, after the arrival of the first shipment of China’s Sinopharm vaccines.
The Qatari health ministry yesterday announced 471 new cases, raising the total number to 165,071, official Qatar News Agency reported.
Oman reported 358 new cases yesterday, raising the total number in the sultanate to 142,527, according to a statement by the Omani health ministry.
In Kuwait, 1,409 new cases and five more deaths were reported yesterday, raising the tally of infections to 194,781, and the death toll to 1,097.
Kuwait extended a ban on entry of non-Kuwaiti travellers to the country and decided to close land and sea borders until Mar 20.
As the first among the Gulf countries to report COVID-19 cases, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) yesterday announced 2,692 new cases, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 399,463.
The UAE’s health ministry also reported 1,589 more recoveries, taking the tally of recoveries in the UAE to 385,587.
Lebanon registered 3,463 new cases yesterday, raising the number of infections to 383,482, the Health Ministry said.
Hoda Samra, spokeswoman of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East said, a total of 7,288 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon were infected with COVID-19, between Feb 20, 2020 and Mar 2, 2021.
There currently exists 1,303 COVID-19 cases among Palestinian refugees and 231 have died from the virus, Samra said.– NNN-MENA
