A man wearing a face mask walks on a street in Cairo, Egypt, on May 22, 2020. Egypt recorded 783 new COVID-19 cases during the last 24 hours, the highest daily rise since the pandemic outbreak in February, bringing the total cases to 15,786, Egypt's health ministry said on Friday. (Xinhua/Ahmed Gomaa)
CAIRO, May 22 (Xinhua) -- Egypt recorded 783 new COVID-19 cases during the last 24 hours, the highest daily rise since the pandemic outbreak in February, bringing the total cases to 15,786, Egypt's health ministry said on Friday.
Egypt also confirmed 11 new coronavirus-related deaths, taking the death toll from the disease to 707, said Khaled Megahed, the health ministry's spokesman, in a statement.
Confirmed cases in the most populous Arab country have notably been growing beyond 700 for the fourth day running.
Meannwhile, Megahed noted that 157 patients have recovered and left hospitals in the past 24 hours, bringing the total recoveries to 4,374.
Egypt is currently implementing a nationwide nine-hour curfew from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. during the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan that ends on May 23.
Starting May 24, the first day of the post-Ramadan Eid al-Fitr holiday, the evening curfew will be 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.
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.
On May 16, the Egyptian authorities received the third batch of medical aid from the Chinese government to help the North African country with its fight against the COVID-19 epidemic.
On Thursday, Chinese Ambassador to Egypt Liao Liqiang said Chinese companies in the North African country take strict precautionary measures to maintain their work momentum in different projects amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Enditem
