Egypt confirms 12 new COVID-19 cases

CAIRO (AA) - Twelve new coronavirus cases were reported in Egypt, the country's Health Ministry said on Friday.

The patients had been on board a Nile boat heading north from the southern city of Aswan to Luxor, the Egyptian daily Akhbar el-Yom reported.

A ministry official said a tourist from Taiwan who was on the boat was infected with the novel coronavirus, finding that 12 of the 14 people on board had contracted the virus.

Egypt on Thursday confirmed its third case of the novel coronavirus amid the global outbreak of the disease.

The new coronavirus emerged in Wuhan, China, last December and has now spread to more than 80 countries.

The global death toll is nearing 3,500, with more than 95,000 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO, which had declared the outbreak an international health emergency, recently updated the global risk level to "very high."

* Ahmed Asmar contributed to this report from Ankara