Egypt’s Covid-19 infections and deaths drop by half

Health ministry attributes fall to vaccination coverage

People wait for a dose of a Covid-19 vaccine at a pop-up clinic at Sadat metro station, Cairo, in November 2021. Reuters

Egypt’s coronavirus infection rate has dropped by 54 per cent over the past week, its health ministry announced on Wednesday.

Covid-19 deaths dropped by 45 per cent during the same period, it said.

After an assessment of infections in Egypt’s 27 provinces, the country’s acting health minister, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, said hospitals in the coastal governorate Beheira were clear of Covid-19 patients.

He said all PCR tests conducted in the province, whether on suspected coronavirus cases or tourists, came back negative.

Beheira has one of the highest vaccination rates of any province in Egypt. Mr Abdel Ghaffar said this was why its infection rate was so low.

Mobile vaccination units set up shop daily in front of prominent mosques and public squares to immunise passers-by.

Since the start of Ramadan, Egypt’s vaccination rate has been between 100,000 and 150,000 doses daily, said the minister.

In celebration of the holy month, Mr Abdel Ghaffar also launched financial incentives for vaccination workers operating in governorates that record the highest immunisation rates.

Occupancy at Egyptian hospitals managed by the ministry was also reviewed at the start of the month.

For general hospital beds, it was 29 per cent, while 45 per cent intensive care beds were occupied, as were 24 per cent of the same hospitals’ ventilators.

On account of the significant drop in new Covid-19 infections and deaths, the ministry has reduced the number of isolation hospitals.

Since starting its vaccine drive in early 2021, Egypt has fully immunised about 32 million people, with more than 44 million receiving at least one dose and two million having a booster.

According to the health ministry’s weekly pandemic update, an average of 559 daily new infections was recorded between March 26 and April 1, with eight deaths recorded in the same period.