Nay Pyi Taw, Jul 2 (IANS): The Myanmar government has imposed a stay-at-home order in nine townships across the Bago and Mandalay regions due to the recent spike of Covid-19 infections.

The stay-at-home order, which will be effective on Friday, will be applied to Thayarwaddy and Minhla townships of Bago region and Chanmyathazi, Chanayethazan, Pyigyitagon, Mahaaungmyay, Aungmyaythazan, Patheingyi and Amarapura townships in Mandalay, reports Xinhua news agency.

So far, the Health and Sports Ministry has imposed the stay-at-home order in 20 townships across the country.

According to the ministry's figures, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Myanmar has increased to 159,347 after 2,070 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours.

In addition, 13 new deaths were reported in the same period, which increased the overall fatalities to 3,347.

A total of 136,992 patients have been discharged from the hospitals and over 2.74 million samples have been tested for Covid-19 so far.