Dubai: Three new coronavirus cases have been reported in Saudi Arabia on Thursday, the Saudi Ministry of Health has confirmed according to Saudi Press Agency. The infected are a man who came recently from Iran and transmitted the virus to his wife, while the third one came from Iran via Bahrain. This brings the total cases in the country to five.
In Kuwait, the total number of cases is now 58 after two new cases were reported on Thursday. Egypt reported its third case on Thursday while Bahrain reported four recoveries among 49 infected cases in the country.
Iran on Thursday reported 15 new deaths from the COVID-19 infection and 591 fresh cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the toll to 107 dead and 3,513 infected.
"Until today, samples have been taken of 23,327 suspected cases, only 3,513 of which have been confirmed," health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said in a televised news conference.
Iraqi authorities have confirmed 32 cases of the virus, and three deaths. The government in Iraq also reduced the official working hours to half except for security and health services.
Algeria also confirmed nine new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number of COVID-19 cases to 17. These include 16 from the same family in Blida province, who hosted a man and his daughter based in France. The guests later tested positive for the virus on their return to France.
Lebanon has 15 confirmed cases while Jordan has one.
Oman has reported 15 cases in total, and have placed over 2,300 people in quarantine. Two cases have fully recovered while the others are in stable condition, according to the Omani ministry. Palestinian Health Ministry on Thursday announced a state of emergency in the West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Jericho over suspected coronavirus cases, Anadolu Agency reported. Morocco has reported two positive cases of the COVID-19.
In the UAE, there are 27 confirmed cases and five reported recoveries. The UAE government has closed schools for four weeks, including an early spring break and two weeks of distance education, as a precautionary measure.
Across the world around 3,300 people have died from the virus. There have been 96,414 infections in 84 countries and territories, according to AFP's latest toll based on official sources at 11;00 GMT (3pm in UAE) Thursday. The main countries affected are mainland China (80,409 cases, 3,012 deaths), South Korea (6,088 cases, 35 deaths), Italy (3,089 cases, 107 deaths) and Iran, (3,513 cases, 107 deaths).
These figures were the latest available at the time of publishing.
- Inputs from Agencies
