CAIRO: The total number of COVID-19 infections in the Middle East has exceeded 2 million as of Sunday. As the pandemic situation varies from place to place, different measures have been taken by countries in the region to fight the virus.
covid-19 resurgence with work resumption Iran, the hardest-hit country in the Middle East region, reported 1,754 new cases on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections to 373,570, including 21,462 deaths and 321,421 recoveries.
On March 5, Iran’s Ministry of Health and Medical Education announced the launch of a national plan to combat the novel coronavirus outbreak in the country with the lowest 802 daily new cases reported on May 5.
However, after the country eased the anti-coronaviurs restrictions under economic pressure, Iran saw a resurgence in the pandemic, setting a record daily rise in COVID-19 cases on June 4 with 3,574 new ones reported.
The Iraqi Health Ministry reported 3,731 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday, raising the total nationwide number to 231,177, including 6,959 deaths and 172,880 recoveries.
Iraq has been taking a series of measures to contain the pandemic since February when the first COVID-19 case emerged in the country. It reported the highest 4,576 daily new COVID-19 cases on Aug. 18 after the canceling of the weekly three-day full curfew to replace them with partial curfew every week.Turkey’s total diagnosed cases reached 268,546 with 6,326 deaths and 243,839 recoveries. The country’s daily new cases hit the highest number on April 11 with 5,138 new ones and reached the lowest 786 on June 2, while the number re-emerged to rise to about an average of 1,500 daily new ones after the work resumption in June. In Lebanon, which experienced the similar situation, the coronavirus cases rose by 595 to 16,870 on Sunday, while the death toll went up by five to 160. Israel’s total COVID-19 infections reached 114,020. The daily new cases in the country dropped to single digits on May 17. With the improvement of the pandemic, Israel gradually eased restrictions. In July and August, the number of new cases in a single day soared, reaching the highest 2,308 cases On July 28. In Morocco, the tally of infections increased to 61,399 after 1,343 new COVID-19 cases were added with 46,355 recoveries and 1,111 deaths.–Agencies
