Iran's daily COVID-19 death toll hits record high as Lebanon, Gaza call for total lockdown

CAIRO - Iran reported on Sunday a record of 434 daily deaths related to the COVID-19, bringing the overall death toll from the pandemic in Iran to 35,298. Meanwhile, health officials from Lebanon and the Hamas-run Gaza Strip called for total lockdown measures to curb the pandemic.

Iran's health ministry said that the country registered 7,719 new infections and the overall tally reached 620,491.

The ministry also said 27 out of 31 Iranian provinces are on red alert for a high risk of infection, while four others are on yellow alert.

The Iraqi Health Ministry reported on Sunday 2,658 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the nationwide infections to 475,288.

The ministry also reported 56 new deaths and 3,127 more recovered cases in the country, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 10,966 and the total recoveries to 402,782.

Morocco registered 3,460 new COVID-19 cases and the overall infections stood at 222,544, the health ministry said in a statement.

It also reported 67 new deaths from the coronavirus, raising the death toll in Morocco to 3,762.

Kuwait reported 608 new COVID-19 cases and three more deaths, raising the tally of infections to 126,534 and the death toll to 782 in the country.

In Lebanon, the caretaker Health Minister Hamad Hassan urged on Sunday local authorities to re-impose total lockdown measures in Lebanon. Hassan noted that Lebanon has been witnessing death cases for young people due to negligence by citizens or lack of awareness among families.

The COVID-19 cases in Lebanon have surpassed 80,000 while the death toll has exceeded 600.

The Qatari health ministry on Sunday announced 164 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 132,720, the official Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported.

Meanwhile, 201 more recovered from the virus, bringing the overall recoveries to 129,784, while the fatalities remained 232 for the third day running as no new deaths were reported, according to a ministry statement quoted by QNA.

In the Gaza Strip, officials at the Hamas-run health ministry on Sunday warned that they might demand the local authorities to impose a full lockdown on the Palestinian enclave because of the rapid increase in the number of people infected with the novel coronavirus.

Meanwhile, the Ramallah-based Palestinian health ministry recorded 540 new cases infected with COVID-19, 185 of them in the Gaza Strip, bringing the total number of infections to 65,802.

In Israel, human trials of a self-developed vaccine kicked off on Sunday. The trials, made in two hospitals, will see 80 more volunteers be injected with a vaccine called "BriLife" this month. The vaccine was created by the Israeli Institute of Biological Research.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that "the true exit from the coronavirus crisis is in the development of vaccines. Therefore, this is a very important day, which gives a shot of encouragement".