Wednesday’s toll brings the total number of deaths from the virus up to 22,735, according to a statement by the Ministry of Health and Population.

It added that 2,001 patients have been discharged from hospitals following recovery, bringing the total number of recoveries to 362,525.

The health ministry also recorded 2,278 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, as the country continues to battle the fourth wave of the pandemic amid an unprecedented surge in infections over the past days.

This brings the total number of reported cases in the country up to 430,480 since the outbreak of the pandemic in February 2020, the ministry said.

Egypt is expected to witness a decline in infections in two to three weeks, Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar, the health ministry’s spokesperson, said in remarks to the media on Wednesday.

The Egyptian Cabinet has issued a decision which lowered the prices of coronavirus tests accredited by the health ministry for travellers to and from Egyptian airports by 30 percent, a statement said on Wednesday.

The recent spike in infections comes as Egypt continues to push ahead with efforts to expand its vaccination campaign to vaccinate 70 percent of the population by the second half of 2022 amid the outbreak of the omicron variant.

The country has inoculated around 42 percent of the targeted groups of its vaccination campaign, Abdel-Ghaffar said on Monday.

Egypt has administered a total of 37.6 million first vaccine doses and 26.6 million second doses since the start of the mass vaccination campaign in January of 2021, according to the health ministry’s daily statistics.

As many as 624,109 booster shots have been administered in recent weeks as well, bringing the total number of doses administered since the start of the campaign to 64.7 million.