Egypt reported 503 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, the country’s highest single-day rise since 21 June.

This raises the total infection tally to 293,951 since the outbreak began in February 2020, the health ministry said in its daily coronavirus update statement.

Since August, Egypt has been seeing a steady increase in the officially detected cases. The surge has started a month aftercthe more contagious delta variant was detected in the country.

Observers, however, say for such announced numbers to reflect the real ones on the ground, they should be multiplied by 10 since they only represent the positive cases registered at the Ministry of Health’s hospitals.

Ten new deaths have been reported over the past 24 hours as well, bringing the total number of deaths from the virus to 16,860, as per the country's health ministry count for Tuesday.

As many as 325 patients have been discharged after recovering from the virus, raising the total number of recoveries to 247,450.

Egypt – in which WHO says 11.4 million doses have been administered until 14 September – has been recently intensifying its vaccination campaign to have 40 million inoculated citizens by the end of 2021 in parallel with a low-prioritised plan for booster shots targeting those who were inoculated at least 6-8 months ago.

The state has urged citizens to register for vaccine shots that are administered at 777 centres nationwide, including 60 at universities and 180 dedicated for travellers.

This is in addition to the existence of 1,300 mobile vaccination teams nationwide, according to health ministry figures.