Egypt cancels all New Year’s celebrations as second covid wave hits

Health officials say the number of new Covid cases could be 10 times that of official tolls

Egypt is battling the second wave of coronavirus infections. Reuters

Egypt has cancelled New Year's celebrations in a bid to help slow the rapid rise in new cases of Covid-19 amid what officials say is a second wave of the virus in the most populous Arab nation.

The ban on New year’s revelry coincided with the steady rise in recent weeks of the rate of new coronavirus infections and as a senior health official warned that the true number of new cases may be 10 times that of the official count announced daily by the Health Ministry.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli on Wednesday announced that all New Year’s gatherings would be banned as a precaution. His announcement came just days after the government ordered hotels, cafes and clubs not to put on events marking the occasion.

"There will be no New Year's celebrations or gatherings as part of the precautionary measures taken to confront the coronavirus," said the prime minister, who has been in charge of the nationwide effort to contain the pandemic.

He said the government planned to deal “decisively” with offenders and repeated his plea to Egyptians to observe preventive measures more diligently, according to a statement issued after the weekly Cabinet meeting.

The government, he said, was “doing everything it can not to order a complete lockdown to avoid the impact of such a move on the economy and consequently on the livelihood of citizens. It is for this reason that the government will not implement these orders [on New year’s celebrations] with laxity,” said Mr Madbouli.

Also Wednesday, Health Minister Hala Zayed told a news conference that 911 new Covid-19 cases were recorded over the previous 24 hours, continuing a trend of daily new highs stretching back to the second week of December. Fatalities have seen a nearly similar rise, with the minister saying that 42 succumbed to the respiratory disease over the same period.

“The curve began to rise starting specifically on October 31, but the increase this week is the highest in the last few weeks,” she said.

The minister said 364 hospitals nationwide, with a capacity of 5,000 care beds and equipped with 2,400 respirators, would be ready to receive critically ill Covid-19 patients when needed.

To date, according to the ministry, 127,972 people have been infected by the coronavirus while 7,1209 died of Covid-19.

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The Health Ministry figures on coronavirus infections have always been interpreted as a reliable indicator of the curve of infections while not reflecting the number of people falling victim to the virus. Government officials in the past suggested that the actual number was far higher, but never gave an estimate.

In a television interview broadcast this week on a local news network, Mohammed Al Nady, a member of the National Coronavirus-Combating Commission, said it was difficult to arrive at the exact number of infections, given that many patients seek treatment for or die from the virus outside the state healthcare system.

“It is very difficult, in fact, but it is at least tenfold, and even that’s generous,” he said.

A new, faster-spreading strain of the virus was probably already in Egypt, he said, but it appeared to be less deadly than the original.

“This winter is the harvest season for the coronavirus and the rate of infections will be higher and faster in the next two months,” he said.

The Health Ministry figures on coronavirus infections and fatalities have long been dismissed by some in Egypt as an effort by the government to avoid panicking the population or affecting the economy. But many, including experts, trusted them as a reliable indicator.

Generally, however, government measures to handle the pandemic are seen as positive by many, including the tight lockdown between March and early July, a generous stimulus package to shield the economy from meltdown and handing one-off cash payments to day labourers who lost their jobs.

In a rare public criticism of the Health Ministry’s figures, a prominent political analyst this week wrote that the decision to publish low daily case numbers was undermining the trust between Egyptians and their government.

"I don't know of a logical, political or moral reason that makes the Health Ministry stick to these figures," wrote Amr El Shobky in Cairo's Al Shorouk daily newspaper. "Continuing to issue these ridiculous figures will undermine trust between the government and the people at a time when the coming period will be difficult."