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CAIRO, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Egypt witnessed on Sunday a new record of 91 single-day fatalities from COVID-19, increasing the death toll in the country to 1,575, said Egyptian Health Ministry.

On the same day, Egypt confirmed 1,618 new COVID-19 infections, bringing the total cases registered in the country to 44,598, Egyptian Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said in a statement.

The statement added that 402 patients have recovered and were discharged from hospitals, raising the total recoveries to 11,931.

Megahed underscored Egypt's close cooperation with the World Health Organization regarding the pandemic, the relevant case detection and the necessary medical care.

Egypt announced its first confirmed COVID-19 case on Feb. 14 and the first death from the respiratory disease on March 8.

Since March 25, the Egyptian government has been imposing a nighttime curfew as a key precautionary measure in combating the highly infectious virus.

On Sunday, the government started implementing a shorter eight-hour curfew instead of nine hours, which will continue until the end of the month, amid a "coexistence plan" to maintain anti-coronavirus precautionary measures while resuming economic activities.

Later in the day, Egypt's civil aviation minister announced that air traffic in all Egyptian airports will be resumed from July 1 as the country prepares for the return of foreign tourism, after more than three months of international flight suspension over the coronavirus concerns.

The most populous Arab country has already started gradual reopening of services and offices, and allowed operation of over 230 hotels for local tourists with 50-percent capacity after they were given official hygiene safety certificates.

Egypt and China have been cooperating closely in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, through mutual provision of medical aid and sharing experiences in containing the spread of the deadly respiratory disease.

In early February, Egypt was among the first nations to provide aid to China in its fight against the coronavirus outbreak. China, after having largely controlled the pandemic, returned favor by sending three batches of medical aid to Egypt.

On April 16, May 10 and May 16, Chinese doctors held video conferences with Egyptian counterparts to share their experiences in prevention and treatment of the virus. Enditem