Iran's single-day COVID-19 cases top 10,000; Palestine receives another batch of vaccines

CAIRO, March 31 (Xinhua) -- Iran reported 10,330 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, taking its nationwide caseload to 1,885,564. Meanwhile, Palestine received another batch of COVID-19 vaccines.

The pandemic has so far claimed 62,665 lives in Iran, up by 96 in the past 24 hours, said Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for the Iranian Ministry of Health and Medical Education, during her daily briefing.

A total of 1,617,333 people have recovered from the disease, while 3,970 remain in intensive care units, she noted.

Meanwhile, Iran has vaccinated roughly 80 percent of its medical staff dealing with the COVID-19 patients, the official news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday, citing Maryam Hazrati, the country's deputy health minister.

Palestine on Wednesday received 25,000 doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, which is the first batch of 2 million vaccines purchased by the government from vaccine manufacturers, Health Minister Mai al-Kaila said.

The vaccination campaign against coronavirus is proceeding at a positive pace, especially after Palestine received a batch of the Sinopharm vaccine donated by China, al-Kaila said.

So far, 78,379 people have received COVID-19 vaccines, including 8,687 people who received the second dose of the vaccines, according to al-Kaila.

On Wednesday, Palestine recorded 2,288 new COVID-19 cases and 13 deaths, according to the Health Ministry.

The Iraqi Ministry of Health reported 6,664 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily increase since the outbreak of the pandemic, raising the total nationwide infections to 850,924.

The ministry said that 37 new deaths were recorded during the day, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 14,323, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 4,210 to 759,560.

It said that 17,180 people were vaccinated during the past 24 hours across the country, bringing the total number of doses received to 56,985.

Turkey on Wednesday confirmed 39,302 new COVID-19 cases, including 1,401 symptomatic patients, as the total number of positive cases in the country reached 3,317,182, according to its health ministry.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 152 to 31,537, while the total recoveries climbed to 3,014,226 after 19,193 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours.

The country started mass vaccination for COVID-19 on Jan. 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine. More than 9,140,000 people were vaccinated so far.

Israel's Ministry of Health reported 466 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total confirmed tally in the country to 833,040.

The death toll from the virus rose to 6,203, with 14 new fatalities. The total recoveries in Israel rose to 819,564, with 1,058 newly recovered cases.

The number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 in Israel has surpassed 5.24 million, or 56.3 percent of its total population, since the vaccination campaign began on Dec. 20, 2020.

Algeria reported 131 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the North African country to 117,192.

The death toll from the virus rose to 3,093 after four new fatalities were added. Meanwhile, 96 more patients recovered from the disease, bringing the total number of recoveries in the country to 81,538.

Lebanon registered 3,393 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 468,400. Meanwhile, death toll from the virus went up 50 to 6,234.

The Qatari Health Ministry announced 780 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 179,964. Meanwhile, 437 more recovered from the virus, bringing the overall recoveries to 164,121, while the fatalities increased by two to 291.

The Omani Health Ministry announced 1,162 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 159,218.

Meanwhile, 568 people recovered during the past 24 hours, taking the overall recoveries to 143,966 while nine deaths were reported, pushing the tally up to 1,678.

The Kuwaiti Health Ministry reported 1,282 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total infections in the country to 232,103. The ministry also announced five more fatalities, taking the death toll to 1,313, while the tally of recoveries rose by 1,330 to 216,580.

Morocco announced 676 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally in the North African country to 496,097. The total number of recoveries from COVID-19 in Morocco increased to 483,363 after 198 more were added.

The death toll rose to 8,818 with five new fatalities during the last 24 hours, while 411 people are in intensive care units.

Meanwhile, 4,320,349 people have received the first vaccine shot against COVID-19 in the country so far, and 3,674,251 people have received the second dose.