CAIRO, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Egypt on Friday confirmed a record 495 new cases of COVID-19, raising the total number of infections in the North African country to 8,476.

Meanwhile, 21 fatalities were recorded, bringing the death toll in the country to 503, said Khaled Megahed, spokesman of the health ministry, in a statement.

All the new cases are Egyptians, Megahed said, adding 58 more patients left hospitals in the past 24 hours, taking the number of recoveries to 1,945.

Egypt on Thursday extended a nationwide night-time curfew for another 15 days until the end of the holy month of Ramadan to curb the spread of COVID-19 pandemic.

The Egyptian government has recently started easing the anti-coronavirus restrictions by reopening some services and offices that had been closed over the past six weeks.

As part of a coexistence plan to live with the pandemic, Egypt intends to maintain some precautionary measures while resuming certain economic activities.