CAIRO, May 18 (Xinhua) -- Egypt reported on Monday a record daily new coronavirus cases of 535, raising the total number of infections in the North African country to 12,764.
The death toll from the disease rose by 15 to 645, while 3,440 have fully recovered since the virus hit Egypt in mid-February, said Khaled Megahed, spokesman of the health ministry, in a statement.
Egypt has been seeing a surge in COVID-19 infections since the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
The most populous Arab country is implementing a nationwide nine-hour curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. during the ongoing Ramadan that will end on May 23.
Starting May 24, the first day of the post-Ramadan Eid al-Fitr holiday, the evening curfew will be extended to 13 hours for six days in order to maintain social distancing and avoid gatherings amid the rise in the number of the COVID-19 cases.
During the Islamic feast, all malls, shops, restaurants, public parks and beaches will be closed and all public means of transport suspended.
From May 30, the curfew will be reduced to 10 hours from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. for two weeks, before the cabinet will consider further easing restrictions and gradually resuming suspended activities.
The Egyptian government has recently started to ease restrictions and gradually reopened services and offices that have been halted since mid-March amid a coexistence plan to maintain anti-coronavirus precautionary measures while resuming services, businesses and economic activities. Enditem
