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CAIRO, Aug. 22-- Iran's confirmed novel coronavirus cases rose to 356,792 on Saturday after an overnight registration of 2,028 new infections. Meanwhile, Iraq's COVID-19 cases surpassed 200,000. Sima Sadat Lari, spokeswoman for the Iran's Ministry of Health and Medical Education, said the pandemic has so far claimed 20,502 lives in Iran, up by 126 in the past 24 hours. Besides, 307,702 have recovered and been discharged from hospitals while 3,850 remain in critical condition. In Iraq, the total number of COVID-19 infections reached 201,050, as the Iraqi Health Ministry reported 3,965 new cases. It also reported 70 fatalities during the day, raising the death toll to 6,353, while 2,947 more patients recovered in the day, bringing the total number of recoveries to 143,393. Ghaiyb al-Omairi, a member of the parliamentary health committee, said in a press release that the infections with coronavirus could climb to 10,000 per day if the non-compliance with the health restrictions continued. "Reaching 10,000 daily infections is something possible, but applying the health restrictions and abiding by the instructions of the World Health Organization and the Health Ministry would reduce the number of infections," al-Omairi said. "The pressure on the health institutions may increase if the number of infections increases and the health situation may get out of control," he said. Saudi Arabia's Health Ministry announced the registration of 1,184 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total cases to 306,370. | 
