The Health Ministry said 47 new coronavirus cases were detected on Saturday, upping the total number of confirmed cases since the outbreak in the country began to 284,262.

In a statement, Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said six patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 16,524.

As many as 656 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 230,368 so far, the spokesman said.