Egypt reported 1,153 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, bringing the total infection tally officially to 250,391 since the outbreak began in February last year.

The health ministry also reported 61 new deaths, bringing the total number of deaths from the virus to 14,559.

The statement said that 677 patients have been discharged after recovering from the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries to 184,373.

The country extended its anti-coronavirus measures till the end of May as it is ramping up the effort to curtail the pandemic's third wave.

The measures include the closure at 9pm of shops, malls, coffee shops, restaurants, and movie theatres, as well as the banning of public activities nationwide.

Egypt, on the other hand, is scaling up efforts to widening its coronavirus vaccination campaign, which already started in January, to include more categories.

The country is waiting for the delivery of millions of coronavirus vaccine doses from Sinopharm and AstraZeneca within days.
Egypt also has taken official steps to locally produce the Chinese Sinovac and the Russian Sputnik V vaccines.