Egypt detected 33 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, and 4 new fatalities, according to the country's health ministry.

 

The total number of infections now stands at 609 nationwide, while the death toll hit 40.

 

The ministry spokesman Khaled Megad said that all the fatalities were Egyptian citizens from Egypt’s capital Cairo and aged between 58-84 years old, adding that “they reached the hospitals in a critical health condition.”

 

The 33 new coronavirus patients are also Egyptians who had come in contact with previously detected cases.

 

The spokesman pointed out that 11 more cases – all for Egyptians – have fully recovered and left the isolation hospitals on Sunday.

 

The number of people whose test results have turned from positive to negative so far has risen to182, among whom 132 have fully recovered and discharged from the isolation hospitals, as per Megahed.

 

Egypt has prepared 27 hospitals nationwide to treat coronavirus patients, and six of these hospitals are currently being used to treat those infected with the virus, with an occupancy rate of 50 to 60 percent.

 

Egypt had already halted international flights, banned mass gatherings, shuttered cinemas, mosques and churches and suspended communal prayers, in an effort to slow the spread of the deadly virus that claimed the lives of thousands around the world,

 

A nationwide nighttime curfew also is in effect daily from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m. until April 7.