The Ministry of Public Health said in a statement Tuesday that 49 new cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Afghanistan in the past 24 hours.

According to the statement, the cases have been registered in Kabul 18, Kandahar 15, Balkh 6, Herat 4, Ghazni 4 and Nangarhar 2.

It brings the total affected people to 714 with 23 deaths and 40 covered, the ministry confirmed.

It comes as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved immediate debt relief for 25 countries – including Afghanistan – aimed to help these countries to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Today, I am pleased to say that our Executive Board approved immediate debt service relief to 25 of the IMF’s member countries under the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) as part of the Fund’s response to help address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Kristalina Georgieva, the IMF’s managing director said.

She added that the IMF’s revamped Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust (CCRT) can currently provide about US$500 million in grant-based debt service relief, including the recent US$185 million pledge by the U.K. and US$100 million provided by Japan as immediately available resources.

“I urge other donors to help us replenish the Trust’s resources and boost further our ability to provide additional debt service relief for a full two years to our poorest member countries,” Kristalina noted.

It comes as the total cases of the novel Coronavirus hike to 1,934,125 with 120,437 deaths and 456,589 recovered.