Egypt reported 989 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the first drop below the 1,000-case threshold since 24 December, according to a statement by the country's health ministry.

Today's figures bring the total number of confirmed cases since the outbreak in mid-February to 148,799 cases.

The health ministry also reported 57 new deaths over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths from the virus to 8,142.

The statement said that 754 patients have been discharged after recovering from the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries to 118,294.

Since the last week of December, more than 1,000 people have been infected every day as the country is currently witnessing a second wave of the coronavirus.

Authorities have warned of a spike in COVID-19 cases since November as the general public has been showing relaxed enforcement of the preventive measures since a drop in confirmed cases had been recorded in the past months.

The country has scaled up efforts to curtail the recent spike, including enforcing an immediate fine of EGP 50 (approximately $3.16) on those not wearing face masks in public and reducing workforce attendance in public premises, in addition to cancelling in-class education and postponing first-term exams at schools and universities.