Search form

You are here

  • Home
  • Coronavirus cases, deaths rise across the Middle East


Coronavirus cases, deaths rise across the Middle East

Baghdad remains under strict government curfew to contain the novel coronavirus, but small groups of volunteers are making food packages for needy families. (File/AFP)
Short Url

https://arab.news/cyx7m

Updated 06 April 2020
Arab News
Follow

Coronavirus cases, deaths rise across the Middle East

  • Public bus services in Dubai will be free of charge for people permitted to leave their homes during the extended sterilization period
Updated 06 April 2020
Arab News

DUBAI: The Middle East has encountered more coronavirus cases and fatalities, with Iran recording its biggest jump in deaths.

Countries are implementing tighter rules on international and domestic travel to strengthen efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Sunday, April 5 (All times in GMT)

21:20 - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is admitted to hospital for precautionary tests for COVID-19.  

18:13 - France reported 357 new coronavirus hospital deaths, bringing the toll to 8,078, and the number of confirmed cases in hospitals rose to 70,478 from 68,605 on Saturday.

17:34 - The UAE recorded 294 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of cases so far to 1,798, with 19 cases cured.

17:21 - Turkey’s death toll from the new coronavirus rose by 73 to total 574, and new confirmed cases rose by 3,135 to bring the country’s total to 27,069, Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter.
He added that 20,065 tests for the COVID-19 disease had been performed in Turkey in the last 24 hours.

17:16 - Morocco recorded 107 new coronavirus cases and 11 deaths.

16:53 - Kuwait recorded 77 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 556.

16:20 - Algeria recorded 22 coronavirus deaths in one day, bringing the toll to 152, and 69 new infections, bringing the total to 1,320 cases.

16:14 - Italy recorded its lowest daily death toll from the novel coronavirus in over two weeks and saw the number of critical care patients decline for the second day.
The 525 official COVID-19 fatalities reported by the civil protection service were the lowest since 427 registered on March 19.

16:01 - Former Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril died of coronavirus in Cairo.

15:40 - Iraq recorded 81 new coronavirus cases and five new deaths, bringing the total number of cases so far to 961.

15:19 - The number of people killed by the coronavirus in Canada has jumped by just over 20% to 258 in a day, official data posted by the public health agency showed on Sunday.
By 11:05 eastern time (1505 GMT), the total number of those diagnosed with the coronavirus had risen by almost 12% to 14,426. The respective figures on Saturday were 214 deaths and 12,924 positive diagnoses.

15:16 - New York state reported 594 deaths from the coronavirus and 8,327 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, increasing the numbers to 4,159 dead and 122,000 cases since the outbreak began, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

15:16 - Europe needs debt mutualization and a common Marshall plan to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Sunday.

14:59 - Mahmud Jibril, the former head of the rebel government that overthrew Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, died of the coronavirus.
Jibril, 68, died in Cairo where he had been hospitalized for two weeks, said Khaled Al-Mrimi, secretary of the Alliance of National Forces party founded by Jibril in 2012.

14:41 - Nearly 20 million jobs at risk in Africa due to coronavirus pandemic and the African government could lose 20% to 30% of fiscal revenue, according to an African Union study.

14:34 - Saudi Arabia's foreign ministry says it has launched an electronic service to receive requests for the return of citizens from abroad and set travel times.

The ministry said registration of requests to return citizens from abroad begins on Sunday and will continue for 5 days, adding that all returning citizens will be subjected to isolation for 14 days.

"We developed an integrated plan for the return of citizens, guaranteeing their safety," it said in a statement on Twitter.

14:32 - Saudi Arabia's King Salman directs the foreign ministry to work on the procedures of citizens wishing to return from abroad amid the coronavirus outbreak. 

14:18 - Egypt expects economic growth to slow to 4.5% in the third quarter and to 1% in the last three months of the 2019/2020 fiscal year to June due to the effects of the coronavirus, Planning Minister Hala Al-Saeed said on Sunday.
The government had been targeting annual growth of 5.6%, but was now looking at 4.2%, she said.

13:33 - The United Kingdom’s death toll from the coronavirus rose by 621 to 4,934 at 1600 GMT on April 4, the health ministry said on Sunday.
As of 0800 GMT, a total of 195,524 people had been tested of which 47,806 tested positive, the health ministry said.

12:41 - Saudi Arabia has confirmed 206 new coronavirus cases and five deaths, bringing totals to 2,385 infections, 34 deaths and 488 recoveries.

12:40 - Ethiopia’s health minister has reported the first death of a COVID-19 patient. The total number of cases in the country is 43 with four recoveries.

12:27 - Albania has recorded 28 new coronavirus cases, bringing total to 361.

12:25 - Libya said total number of COVID-19 cases reached 9.

12:15 - The number of deaths caused by the new coronavirus in the Netherlands has increased by 115 to 1,766, health authorities said on Sunday.
Confirmed infections increased by 1,224 to 17,851, the Dutch Institute for Public Health said.

11:35 - Singapore’s health ministry on Sunday confirmed 120 more coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 1,309 infections and six deaths.

11:31 – The UAE cabinet held its second virtual meeting to discuss government efforts amid the coronavirus outbreak. It has ordered factories to mee the needs of the country’s health sector and issued other directives to support the community.

 

 

10:52 - South Sudan has confirmed its first case of COVID-19, its vice president said on Sunday.

10:45 - Lebanon started repatriating nationals stranded abroad in its first flight in weeks since it closed its international airport to stem the novel coronavirus.

09:54 - Iran’s total coronavirus death toll has reached 3,603, with cases raised to 58,226.

09:34 - Spain reported 6032 new coronavirus cases and 674 deaths, bringing totals to 130,759 infections and 12,418.

09:19 - Kuwait has announced 77 new coronavirus cases, bringing total to 556.

09:04 - Malaysia has reported 179 new coronavirus cases and four deaths, bringing total to 3,662.

08:47 - Lebanon has confirmed seven new coronavirus cases, increasing total to 527.

08:25 - Philippine Health Ministry has reported eight new coronavirus deaths and 152 new cases.

08:22 - Palestine has recorded nine new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 226.

08:21 - Morocco has announced 41 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 960.

08:13 - Jordan said it is to use drones and surveillance cameras to monitor compliance with a nationwide curfew imposed to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.

07:19 - More than 130 people were newly infected with the novel coronavirus in Tokyo, Japan’s NHK public broadcaster reported on Sunday, citing officials from the metropolitan government.

06:31 - Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has pardoned 5,654 prisoners and ordered measures to protect inmates from the coronavirus outbreak, the justice ministry said on Sunday.

06:22 - Oman has recorded 21 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 298.

06:04 - Greece has quarantined a second migrant facility this week after a 53-year-old man tested positive for coronavirus, the migration ministry said on Sunday. 

03:38 - Baghdad remains under strict government curfew to contain the novel coronavirus, but small groups of volunteers are making food packages for needy families.

“What we’re doing is a humanitarian duty toward society, and anyone who can afford it should do the same,” said businessman, Abu Hashim.

03:35 - Australian health officials said on Sunday they were cautiously optimistic about the slowing spread of coronavirus in the country but warned social distancing restrictions are to stay in place for months.

Confirmed cases rose by 181 during the 24-hour period to early Sunday, bringing the national total to 5,635, health ministry data showed. The death toll from COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus, rose to 34.

Saturday, April 4 (All times in GMT)

19:58 - Abu Dhabi will extend the closure of entertainment destinations including commercial centers, shopping malls and cinemas until further notice, state news agency WAM reported citing the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development.

19:42 - Public bus services in Dubai will be free of charge for people permitted to leave their homes during the extended sterilization period, state news agency reported citing the Roads and Transport Authority.

Taxis in the emirate will also provide a 50 percent discount on fares. 

17:46 - Egypt’s Minister of Health Dr. Hala Zayed arrived in Italy on Saturday with a military delegation to deliver medical aid equipment, protective suits, detergents and sanitizers transported by two jets, local daily newspaper Egypt Today reported.

Topics: Coronavirus (COVID-19) China Coronavirus

Related

Business & Economy
Smartphone war on coronavirus ‘puts privacy, freedoms at risk’
photos
Saudi Arabia
Saudi charitable efforts increase amid rising coronavirus cases 

Israel records 160 launches fom Lebanon as Hezbollah targets Tel Aviv, south

Israeli security forces and people inspect a damaged house at a site hit by rockets fired from Lebanon in Rinatya village.
Updated 7 sec ago
AFP
Follow

Israel records 160 launches fom Lebanon as Hezbollah targets Tel Aviv, south

  • Medical agencies reported that at least 11 people were wounded, including a man in a “moderate to serious” condition
Updated 7 sec ago
AFP

JERUSALEM: Israel’s army said Hezbollah fired around 160 projectiles into its territory from Lebanon on Sunday, with the group saying its attacks had targeted the Tel Aviv area and Israel’s south.
The Iran-backed group said in a statement that it had “launched, for the first time, an aerial attack using a swarm of attack drones on the Ashdod naval base” in southern Israel.
Later, it said it fired “a barrage of advanced missiles and a swarm of attack drones” at a “military target” in Tel Aviv, and had also launched a volley of missiles at the Glilot army intelligence base in the city’s suburbs.
The Israeli military did not comment on the specific attack claims when contacted by AFP.
But it said earlier that air raid sirens had sounded in several locations in central and northern Israel, including in the greater Tel Aviv suburbs.
It later reported that “approximately 160 projectiles that were fired by the Hezbollah terrorist organization have crossed from Lebanon into Israel.”
Some of the projectiles were shot down.
Medical agencies reported that at least 11 people were wounded, including a man in a “moderate to serious” condition.
AFP images from Petah Tikva, near Tel Aviv, showed several damaged and burned-out cars, and a house pockmarked by shrapnel.
The wave of projectiles follows at least four deadly Israeli strikes in central Beirut in the past week, including one that killed Hezbollah spokesman Mohammed Afif.
In a speech on Wednesday, Hezbollah chief Naim Qassem had said the response to the recent strikes on the capital “must be expected on central Tel Aviv.”
The Lebanese army, meanwhile, said that a soldier was killed on Sunday and 18 others injured, “including some with severe wounds, as a result of an Israeli attack targeting a Lebanese army center in Amriyeh.”
Though the Lebanese army is not a party to the war between Israel and Hezbollah, Israeli strikes have killed 19 Lebanese soldiers in the last two months, authorities have said.
Since September 23, Israel has intensified its Lebanon air campaign, later sending in ground troops after nearly a year of limited exchanges of fire initiated by Hezbollah in support of its ally Hamas after the Palestinian group’s October 7, 2023 attack, which sparked the Gaza war.
Lebanon’s health ministry says at least 3,670 people have been killed in the country since October 2023, most of them since September this year.

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Hezbollah Tel Aviv

Related

Middle-East
EU’s Borrell urges pressure on Israel, Hezbollah to accept US ceasefire proposal
Update video
Middle-East
Israel, Hezbollah trade deadly blows despite ceasefire talks

Israeli strike on Lebanese army center kills soldier, wounds 18 others

Updated 24 November 2024
AP
Follow

Israeli strike on Lebanese army center kills soldier, wounds 18 others

  • It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed over 40 Lebanese troops
  • Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister condemned it as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts
Updated 24 November 2024
AP

BEIRUT: An Israeli strike on a Lebanese army center on Sunday killed one soldier and wounded 18 others, the Lebanese military said.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli strikes that have killed over 40 Lebanese troops, even as the military has largely kept to the sidelines in the war between Israel and Hezbollah militants.

There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military, which has said previous strikes on Lebanese troops were accidental and that they are not a target of its campaign against Hezbollah.

Lebanon’s caretaker prime minister, Najib Mikati, condemned it as an assault on US-led ceasefire efforts, calling it a “direct, bloody message rejecting all efforts and ongoing contacts” to end the war.

“(Israel is) again writing in Lebanese blood a brazen rejection of the solution that is being discussed,” a statement from his office read.

The strike occurred in southwestern Lebanon on the coastal road between Tyre and Naqoura, where there has been heavy fighting between Israel and Hezbollah.

Hezbollah began firing rockets, missiles and drones into Israel after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack out of the Gaza Strip ignited the war there. Hezbollah has portrayed the attacks as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians and Hamas. Iran supports both armed groups.

Israel has launched retaliatory airstrikes since the rocket fire began, and in September the low-level conflict erupted into all-out war, as Israel launched waves of airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon and killed Hezbollah’s top leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and several of his top commanders.

Israeli airstrikes early Saturday pounded central Beirut, killing at least 20 people and wounding 66, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. Hezbollah has continued to fire regular barrages into Israel, forcing people to race for shelters and occasionally killing or wounding them.

Israeli attacks have killed more than 3,500 people in Lebanon, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry. The fighting has displaced about 1.2 million people, or a quarter of Lebanon’s population.

On the Israeli side, about 90 soldiers and nearly 50 civilians have been killed by bombardments in northern Israel and in battle following Israel’s ground invasion in early October. Around 60,000 Israelis have been displaced from the country’s north.

The Biden administration has spent months trying to broker a ceasefire, and US envoy Amos Hochstein was back in the region last week.

The emerging agreement would pave the way for the withdrawal of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops from southern Lebanon below the Litani River in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution that ended the 2006 war. Lebanese troops would patrol the area, with the presence of UN peacekeepers.

Lebanon’s army reflects the religious diversity of the country and is respected as a national institution, but it does not have the military capability to impose its will on Hezbollah or resist Israel’s invasion.

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon Lebanon Israel

Related

Middle-East
Israeli strikes across Lebanon kill more than 55 as US officials push for ceasefire
Middle-East
Fierce Israel-Hezbollah clashes at flashpoint town: Lebanon state media

EU’s Borrell urges pressure on Israel, Hezbollah to accept US ceasefire proposal

Updated 24 November 2024
Reuters
Follow

EU’s Borrell urges pressure on Israel, Hezbollah to accept US ceasefire proposal

  • The EU’s foreign policy chief warned that Lebanon was “on the brink of collapse”
Updated 24 November 2024
Reuters

BEIRUT: The European Union’s foreign policy chief called on Sunday during a visit to Beirut for pressure to be exerted on both the Israeli government and on Lebanon’s Hezbollah to accept a US ceasefire proposal.
Speaking at a news conference in Beirut, Josep Borell also urged Lebanese leaders to pick a president to end a two-year power vacuum in the country, and he pledged 200 million euros in support for Lebanon’s armed forces. 

Lebanon on 'brink of collapse'

The EU’s foreign policy chief warned that Lebanon was “on the brink of collapse” after Israel launched an intense air campaign two months ago following nearly a year of clashes with Hezbollah.
“Back in September I came and was still hoping we could prevent a full-fledged war of Israel attacking Lebanon. Two months later Lebanon is on the brink of collapse,” Josep Borrell told reporters in Beirut.

Topics: Battlefield Lebanon EU Hezbollah Israel

Related

Middle-East
Fierce Israel-Hezbollah clashes at flashpoint town: Lebanon state media
Middle-East
US says committed to ‘diplomatic resolution’ in Lebanon

Israeli army orders Gaza City suburb evacuated, spurring new displacement wave

Updated 24 November 2024
Reuters
Follow

Israeli army orders Gaza City suburb evacuated, spurring new displacement wave

  • Israeli military blames Hamas rocket fire for renewed evacuation directive
  • Palestinians say hospitals in north Gaza barely functioning
Updated 24 November 2024
Reuters

CAIRO: The Israeli military issued new evacuation orders to residents in areas of an eastern Gaza City suburb, setting off a new wave of displacement on Sunday, and a Gaza hospital director was injured in an Israeli drone attack, Palestinian medics said.
The new orders for the Shejaia suburb posted by the Israeli army spokesperson on X on Saturday night were blamed on Palestinian militants firing rockets from that heavily built-up district in the north of the Gaza Strip.
“For your safety, you must evacuate immediately to the south,” the military’s post said. The rocket volley on Saturday was claimed by Hamas’ armed wing, which said it had targeted an Israeli army base over the border.
Footage circulated on social and Palestinian media, which Reuters could not immediately verify, showed residents leaving Shejaia on donkey carts and rickshaws, with others, including children carrying backpacks, walking.
Families living in the targeted areas began fleeing their homes after nightfall on Saturday and into Sunday’s early hours, residents and Palestinian media said — the latest in multiple waves of displacement since the war began 13 months ago.
In central Gaza, health officials said at least 10 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the urban camps of Al-Maghazi and Al-Bureij since Saturday night.
Hospital director wounded by gunfire
In north Gaza, where Israeli forces have been operating against regrouping Hamas militants since early last month, health officials said an Israeli drone dropped bombs on Kamal Adwan Hospital, injuring its director Hussam Abu Safiya.
“This will not stop us from completing our humanitarian mission and we will continue to do this job at any cost,” Abu Safiya said in a video statement circulated by the health ministry on Sunday.
“We are being targeted daily. They targeted me a while ago but this will not deter us...,” he said from his hospital bed.
Israeli forces say armed militants use civilian buildings including housing blocks, hospitals and schools for operational cover. Hamas denies this, accusing Israeli forces of indiscriminately targeting populated areas.
Kamal Adwan is one of three hospitals in north Gaza that are barely operational as the health ministry said the Israeli forces have detained and expelled medical staff and prevented emergency medical, food and fuel supplies from reaching them.
In the past few weeks, Israel said it had facilitated the delivery of medical and fuel supplies and the transfer of patients from north Gaza hospitals in collaboration with international agencies such as the World Health Organization.
Residents in three embattled north Gaza towns — Jabalia, Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun — said Israeli forces had blown up hundreds of houses since renewing operations in an area that Israel said months ago had been cleared of militants.
Palestinians say Israel appears determined to depopulate the area permanently to create a buffer zone along the northern edge of Gaza, an accusation Israel denies.
Israel’s campaign in Gaza has killed more than 44,000 people, uprooted nearly all the enclave’s 2.3 million population at least once, according to Gaza officials, while reducing wide swathes of the narrow coastal territory to rubble.
The war erupted in response to a cross-border attack by Hamas-led militants on Oct. 7, 2023 in which gunmen killed around 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Topics: War on Gaza Gaza Israel Hamas

Related

Middle-East
Israel cracks down on Palestinian citizens who speak out against the war in Gaza
Middle-East
Hamas armed wing says Israeli woman hostage killed in north Gaza

Iran to hold nuclear talks with three European powers in Geneva on Friday, Kyodo reports

Updated 24 November 2024
Reuters
Follow

Iran to hold nuclear talks with three European powers in Geneva on Friday, Kyodo reports

  • A senior Iranian official confirmed that the meeting would go ahead next Friday
Updated 24 November 2024
Reuters

DUBAI: Iran plans to hold talks about its disputed nuclear program with three European powers on Nov. 29 in Geneva, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported on Sunday, days after the UN atomic watchdog passed a resolution against Tehran.
Iran reacted to the resolution, which was proposed by Britain, France, Germany and the United States, with what government officials called various measures such as activating numerous new and advanced centrifuges, machines that enrich uranium.
Kyodo said Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government was seeking a solution to the nuclear impasse ahead of the inauguration in January of US President-elect Donald Trump.
A senior Iranian official confirmed that the meeting would go ahead next Friday, adding that “Tehran has always believed that the nuclear issue should be resolved through diplomacy. Iran has never left the talks.”
In 2018, the then-Trump administration exited Iran’s 2015 nuclear pact with six major powers and reimposed harsh sanctions on Iran, prompting Tehran to violate the pact’s nuclear limits, with moves such as rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, refining it to higher fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up output.
Indirect talks between President Joe Biden’s administration and Tehran to try to revive the pact have failed, but Trump said in his election campaign in September that “We have to make a deal, because the consequences are impossible. We have to make a deal.”

Topics: Iran nuclear program Geneva Iran

Latest updates

Israel records 160 launches fom Lebanon as Hezbollah targets Tel Aviv, south
Israeli security forces and people inspect a damaged house at a site hit by rockets fired from Lebanon in Rinatya village.
Pakistan vows order as Imran Khan’s party launches protest before Belarusian president’s arrival
Ukraine shows fragments of new Russian missile after ‘Oreshnik’ strike
Israeli strike on Lebanese army center kills soldier, wounds 18 others
Pakistan vows to facilitate Chinese investors in Special Economic Zones

Search form

Print Edition
Read pdf version Subscribe now
© 2024 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.