Sarajevo, Apr 7 (IANS): Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH) on Tuesday reported its highest daily number of Covid-19-related deaths since the outbreak of the pandemic.

The country's health authorities registered 1,099 new cases and 99 deaths in the past 24 hours. The previous record daily death toll was 93, reported on March 29, while on April 2 a record 2,154 new daily cases were reported.

To date, 177,506 Covid-19 cases and 7,052 deaths have been reported by the health authorities of BiH, a country of 3.5 million people, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Restaurants, bars, gyms, public swimming pools and spas remain closed throughout the country. The Federation of BiH, one of the state's two entities, also introduced a 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew on March 23.

According to the state-owned FENA news agency, hundreds of protesters gathered in the capital Sarajevo on Tuesday, blaming the government for its "inefficient response to the pandemic and the delay in providing Covid-19 vaccines to all citizens." They also urged the introduction of mandatory Covid-19 testing of all international arrivals in the country.

In September 2020, BiH purchased more than 1.2 million vaccine doses through the COVAX Facility, an international initiative co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners to ensure equitable global access to Covid-19 vaccines.

To date, only 49,800 doses have arrived in BiH through COVAX.