Middle Eastern Countries Strengthen Actions Against COVID-19

Iran reported on Sunday a record of 434 daily deaths related to the COVID-19, bringing the overall death toll from the pandemic to 35,298. Meanwhile, health officials from Lebanon and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip called for total lockdown measures to curb the pandemic.

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Iran's health ministry said that the country registered 7,719 new infections and the overall tally reached 620,491. The ministry also said 27 out of 31 Iranian provinces are on red alert for a high risk of infection, while four others are on yellow alert.

Irak's Health Ministry reported on Sunday 2,658 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the nationwide infections to 475,288. It also reported 56 new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 10,966 and the total recoveries to 402,782.

Morocco registered 3,460 new COVID-19 cases and the overall infections stood at 222,544, the health ministry said in a statement. It also reported 67 new deaths from the coronavirus, raising the death toll in Morocco to 3,762.

In Lebanon, the caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan urged on Sunday local authorities to re-impose total lockdown measures in Lebanon. Hassan noted that Lebanon has been witnessing death cases for young people due to negligence by citizens or lack of awareness among families. The COVID-19 cases in Lebanon have surpassed 80,000 while the death toll has exceeded 600.

The Qatari health ministry announced 164 new COVID-19 infections, raising the number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 132,720, the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.

Meanwhile, 201 more recovered from the virus, bringing the overall recoveries to 129,784, while the fatalities remained 232 for the third day running as no new deaths were reported, according to a ministry statement quoted by QNA.

In the Gaza Strip, officials at the Hamas-run health ministry on Sunday warned that they might demand the local authorities to impose a full lockdown on the Palestinian enclave because of the rapid increase in the number of people infected with the novel coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry recorded 540 new COVID-19 cases, 185 of them in the Gaza Strip, bringing the total number of infections to 65,802.