Wednesday's figure is up from the country's all-time-high record of 1,809 cases recorded a day prior, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.

The ministry also reported 29 coronavirus-related deaths over the past 24 hours nationwide, bringing the total number of deaths from the virus to 22,460.

The statement added that 1,870 patients have been discharged after recovering from the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries to 349,427.

Amid the continued increase in daily coronavirus infections over the past weeks, Egypt has implemented new coronavirus-related restrictions at airports, seaports, and land crossings to contain the spread of the Omicron variant.

Egypt has included Merck's antiviral COVID-19 drug Molnupiravir in its coronavirus treatment protocol, acting Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar said on Wednesday, two days after the Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) authorised the oral medicine for emergency use.

Egyptian companies have already started manufacturing the Molnupiravir pills, Abdel-Ghaffar added during a cabinet meeting on the COVID-19 pandemic.

Minister Abdel-Ghaffar said Egypt has also secured deals to obtain doses of the Merck drug through UNICEF.

Egypt has so far received a total of 136 million doses of the Sinopharm, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Sputnik V vaccines, in addition to the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, Abdel-Ghaffar noted.

Egypt has administered over 63 million doses of the coronavirus vaccines, fully vaccinating over 25.3 million people since the start of the country’s vaccination campaign in early 2021.

The country has also vaccinated around 37 million with the first dose and around 592,000 with booster shots, according to the ministry figures on Wednesday.