Syrian president, first lady positive for COVID-19, Iraq extends curfew

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma al-Assad were tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, reported Xinhua.

Meanwhile, Iraq announced the extension of partial and full curfew due to a continued increase in coronavirus infections.

Syrian's official SANA news agency reported that the PCR tests of the Syrian first couple came out as positive but they are still in good and stable health.

Assad and the first lady will be observing a quarantine between two to three weeks while continuing to carry out their work.

The president urged the people to observe safety measures to protect themselves.

This comes at a time when the COVID-19 cases in Syria are heading up amid medical experts' warnings of a strong wave of the pandemic. Syrian Health Ministry said the overall number of infections was 15,981 on Sunday, including 10,374 recoveries and 1,063 deaths.

The Iraqi authorities extended Monday partial and full curfew for two weeks.

A statement by the General Secretariat for the Council of Ministers said that the health authorities decided to extend the full curfew for Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays, and a partial curfew from 8 p.m. until 5 a.m. for the rest of the week, starting from March 9 until March 22.

The decision was based on the recommendations of the Ministry of Health, as the epidemiological situation indicates a continued increase in COVID-19 infections, according to the statement.

Iraq reported 4,468 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the total nationwide number of cases to 731,016. It also reported 24 new deaths, raising the death toll from the infectious virus to 13,596, while the total recoveries in Iraq climbed by 3,920 to 664,461.

Turkey reported 13,215 new COVID-19 cases, including 767 symptomatic patients, as the total number of positive cases in the country reached 2,793,632.

The death toll from the virus in Turkey rose by 64 to 29,094, while the total recoveries climbed to 2,632,030 after 8,106 more cases recovered in the last 24 hours.

Turkey has administered more than 10,121,000 COVID-19 vaccines nationwide, its health ministry announced on Monday.

More than 7,630,000 people have got their first doses of the vaccine, while more than 2,491,000 people have received their second doses.

The country started mass vaccination against COVID-19 on Jan. 14 after the authorities approved the emergency use of the Chinese CoronaVac vaccine.

Israel's Ministry of Health reported 3,130 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, raising the tally of confirmed cases in the country to 804,591.

The death toll from the COVID-19 in Israel reached 5,915 after 26 new fatalities were added. The total recoveries in Israel rose to 761,358, with 3,258 newly recovered cases.

The number of people vaccinated against COVID-19 in Israel has surpassed 5 million, or 53.8 percent of its total population, since the vaccination campaign began on Dec. 20, 2020.

Kuwait reported 1,326 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 201,898.

The country also announced six more deaths, taking the death toll to 1,133. The tally of recoveries nationwide rose by 935 to 187,122, while 13,643 coronavirus-related patients are receiving treatment.

Kuwait started on March 7 to impose a partial curfew, from 5 p.m. local time (1400 GMT) to 5 a.m. until April 8, as part of its efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19.

Jordan reported 7,413 new COVID-19 cases and 52 more deaths, bringing the overall number of cases to 435,130 with 4,987 deaths in the country. And 4,139 recoveries were registered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 371,454.

Lebanon registered 2,283 new COVID-19 cases, raising the total number of infections to 397,871. The number of deaths from the virus went up by 43 to 5,089 in the country.

The Qatari Health ministry announced 468 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the Gulf state to 167,417.

Meanwhile, 298 more people recovered from the virus, bringing the overall recoveries to 156,299, while the fatalities increased by one to 263.

The Omani Health Ministry announced 449 new COVID-19 infections, raising the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 144,404.

Meanwhile, 370 people recovered during the past 24 hours, taking the overall recoveries to 134,684, while three people reportedly died, pushing the tally up to 1,594.