Egypt's health minister sounds warning on Covid-19 spread

Hala Zayed says infections rising by 10 per cent as people ignore health precautions

Large crowds packing cafes, restaurants and shopping malls are not helping efforts to contain the spread of the virus in Egypt says its health minister. Reuters

The rate of Covid-19 infections is rising in Egypt as the most populous Arab nation falls deeper into the grip of a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, Health Minister Hala Zayed said on Saturday.

“Infections in Egypt are increasing by small though regular jumps. They are growing by 10 per cent,” Mrs Zayed told a news conference.

Large crowds packing cafes, restaurants and shopping malls for Ramadan are not helping efforts to contain the spread of the virus, she said.

“It is in your interest to keep these enterprises open,” she told operators of these businesses. “You can only blame yourselves if we close you down.”

Most Egyptians have been casual about or outright ignored safety precautions such as wearing face masks and social distancing.

This has increased markedly since the start of Ramadan on April 13, with people packing cafes, restaurants and the special tents where food is served as live music plays at and after the sunset meal that breaks the daylong fast.

Health Ministry figures show the daily number of infections approaching 900 compared to about 600-700 last month. Deaths hover around 40 to 50 a day.

A total of 220,658 people have contracted Covid-19 since the epidemic began and 12,959 died of the virus as of Friday.

Although the real figures on infections and fatalities are thought to be much higher, the ministry’s statistics are considered a reliable indicator of the “curve” of the epidemic.

Egypt’s vaccine roll-out began in January, but less than one per cent of the country’s 100 million people have received at least one vaccine dose so far.

Mrs Zayed said Egypt signed agreements last week to manufacture locally the Chinese vaccine Sinovac, with 40 million doses to be produced this year. She did not say when production would begin.

Egypt playing vaccine catch-up

Separately, Egypt is in the process of securing a total of 100 million doses for this year, she said.

Surprisingly, only 50 per cent of medical workers, who have priority for vaccination, have registered to receive their shots, the minister said. And of those who registered, only 60 per cent showed up for their vaccination appointment, she said.

The minister appeared to be responding to calls by the doctors’ union for the Health Ministry to speed up the vaccination of medical staff.

The union says a total of 467 doctors have died of Covid-19 since the pandemic began 14 months ago, 50 of them in the last two weeks.

But Mrs Zayed said only 115 doctor deaths were from dealing directly with Covid-19 patients in state-run hospitals.

“The rest caught the virus while [leading normal lives] in society,” she said.

She did not say how many doctors had succumbed to the virus overall.

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