Somalia has registered a spike in confirmed Covid-19 cases after 35 people tested positive for the virus in the last 24 hours.

The federal Minister for Health, Dr Fawzia Abikar Nur, said the country now has 60 confirmed cases from 25.

"We hereby confirm 35 new cases of the novel coronavirus, bringing the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country to 60," the Minister told the media in the capital Mogadishu.

Three of the new cases were in the breakaway region of Somaliland.

"32 of the new cases were registered in Mogadishu, while two cases were recorded in Hargeisa and one was found in Borama."

Hargeisa is the capital city of the self-declared Republic of Somaliland, a region which unilaterally announced separation from the rest of Somalia in 1991. Borama is one of the major towns in Somaliland.

In the daily Covid-19 update, Minister Nur explained on Monday that 52 of the confirmed cases were recovering in their houses, being self-isolated.

One more patient is recuperating at an isolation centre in the Halane camp, the base of the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom).

Curfew

Meanwhile, on Sunday, the government announced a night curfew in Mogadishu effective April 15th.

General Abdi Hassan Hijar, the commander of Somali Police Force, said the move is meant to contain the spread of coronavirus in the capital.

The curfew will be enforced from 8PM in the evening till 5AM in the morning.