Updates from around the world:

Netherlands

The number of confirmed novel coronavirus cases in the Netherlands passed the 10,000 mark on Sunday, the authorities said, as the country focuses on building up herd immunity rather than confining the population of 17 million.

A total of 771 people have died from the COVID-19 epidemic in the Netherlands and 10,866 have tested positive, the country’s institute for public health and environment (RIVM) said.

The Dutch government has adopted a series of measures to fight the virus, but has decided so far not to force people to stay home. A review of the policy is due to be unveiled on Tuesday.

Egypt

Egypt has shuttered several hospitals and quarantined villages in an attempt to halt the rising infection rate of new coronavirus in the most populous Arab state.

A Cairo hospital was closed for sterilisation late Saturday after two COVID-19 cases were confirmed.

An official at Al-Salam hospital told AFP on Sunday: “We are currently disinfecting the hospital for the safety of everyone concerned. One patient had come in tested positive and a member of our staff was infected after”.He said no date was yet set for re-opening the facility.

Saudi Arabia

Saudi authorities have seized more than five million medical masks that were illegally stockpiled amid the coronavirus outbreak, state media reported Sunday, as the death toll in the kingdom doubled.

The commerce ministry seized 1.17 million masks from a private store in Hail, northwest of the capital, after authorities Wednesday confiscated more than four million masks stored in a facility in the western city of Jeddah in violation of commercial regulations, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The ministry said people behind such activities would be prosecuted, and that the confiscated masks would be redistributed to the open market.

– AFP