Cairo, May 12 (IANS): Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi has approved a new law to add 10 billion EGP ($635 million) to the state budget for the current fiscal year amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The new law also aims to help day and seasonal labourers negatively affected by the precautionary measures taken to contain the pandemic, reports Xinhua news agency.

The law came as the Executive Board of the IMF on Monday approved Egypt's request for emergency financial assistance of $2.772 billion.

Also on Monday, Egypt's Finance Ministry launched an initiative to support tourism and hotels against the harsh impacts of the health crisis.

The initiative covers the salaries of employees working in hotels and tourist facilities, which have to provide lists with employees' names and bank accounts for their salaries to be directly transferred.

It also covers operation costs and employees' salaries in small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Egypt currently has 9,746 COVID-19 cases, with 533 deaths.