YANGON------Myanmar saw 5,285 new Covid-19 cases in a single day after total samples of 14,492 had been tested from July 17th at 8:00 pm to July 18th at 8:00 pm, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports(MOHS)reported at 8pm news hours of July 18th.  

Moreover, 231 deaths were reported on that day bringing the death toll to 5,000 since the outbreak.

A total of 2,972,006 Covid-19 samples were tested and 229,521 cases reported as being of July 18th. On the same day, 2,890 patients were discharged after their recoveries, bringing the total number patients discharged to 161,859, said MOHS.

On July 18th, the labs run by the Ministry reported of 279 cases, the hospitals in various regions and states including Nay Pyi Taw 26 cases, No.1 Defence Services Hospital (1,000 bed) in Yangon 382 cases, No.2 Defence Services Hospital (1,000-bed) in Nay Pyi Taw 329 cases, private hospitals labs 127 cases, hospitals in various regions and states 1,121 cases with COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Diagnostic Test and Public Health Departments 3,021 cases.

Covid-19 positivity rate in Myanmar has reached nearly 40 percent with 1,435 deaths from July 1 to 17, according to the ministry of health and sports.

There were 13 deaths on July 1 that saw over 20 percent positivity rate, 17 deaths on July 2, 20 deaths on July 3, 35 deaths on July 4, 42 deaths on July 5, 52 deaths on July 6 and 57 deaths on July 7, 51 deaths on July 8, 64 deaths on July 9, 71 deaths on July 10, 82 deaths on July 11, 89 deaths on July 12, 109 deaths on July 13, 145 deaths on July 14, 165 deaths on July 15, 190 deaths on July 16 and 233 deaths on July 17 totaling 1,435 deaths within 17 days.

Myanmar has seen new variants of Covid-19 such as the Alpha and Delta which are variants of concern and the Kappa which is a variant of interest.

Since the first wave of the Covid-19 outbreak, Myanmar has reported 229,521 cases and 5,000 deaths. Of the reported cases, 161,859 patients have been discharged from hospital after their recovery.