Virus claims 73 more lives in Iraq, 24 in Saudi Arabia

ANKARA (AA) - Local health authorities in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE confirmed new fatalities and infections from the novel coronavirus on Wednesday.

The Iraqi Health Ministry said the death toll in the country rose to 9,604, with 73 additions over the past 24 hours.

A further 3,923 new cases were recorded in Iraq, raising the tally to 319,044, while recoveries reached 319,784, a ministry statement said.

In Saudi Arabia, the Health Ministry registered 24 new deaths and 468 fresh infections, pushing the death toll to 4,974 and the total number of confirmed cases to 337,711, including 323,208 recoveries.

The Kuwaiti Health Ministry registered seven deaths, 475 cases and 597 recoveries over the past 24 hours.

The total number of cases rose to 108,743 -- including 639 deaths and 100,776 recoveries.

In the UAE, one more patient died from the virus, 1,046 new cases were reported and another 1,154 people recovered, according to the Health Ministry.

Wednesday's figure pushed the total number of cases to 101,840 -- including 436 deaths and 91,710 recoveries.

The pandemic has killed more than 1.05 million people worldwide, with over 35.87 million confirmed cases, according to figures compiled by the US' Johns Hopkins University.

The number of recoveries from the pandemic across the globe surpassed 25.01 million.

* Writing by Zehra Nur Duz from Ankara