Sisi urges establishing medical warehouses to ensure strategic reserve

CAIRO – 5 July 2020: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Sunday urged the government to accelerate efforts to establish strategic warehouses for medical supplies, to ensure the availability of strategic reserve for current and future use, the Presidency said in a statement.

In a meeting with Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli and a number of state officials, Sisi urged establishing these warehouses close to main road networks to guarantee easy access to them, and on a geographical scale that guarantees the best and fastest coverage.

Sisi ordered using the highest international standards in the planned medical warehouses, including automation, using the latest technologies and artificial intelligence.

The meeting was attended by Planning Minister Hala El Saeed and Executive Director of Egypt's Sovereign Wealth Fund Ayman Seliman.

Sisi and the officials have reviewed, during the meeting, updates of the activation process of the sovereign fund and its work strategy. They also discussed ways to maximize its resources and assets and enhance its financial structure.

Egypt’s Sovereign Fund targets about LE 50 to LE 60 billion of exploited and untapped assets to put them at the disposal of the fund,” Seliman said in June.

Seliman added that the fund is working on preparing a second stage of transferring the exploited and untapped assets.

He also revealed there are preparations for launching 4 sub-funds in the health services and infrastructure sector, the food and agricultural manufacturing sector, the financial services and financial inclusion sector.

Seliman indicated that there are 3 other sub-funds that are being prepared for and will be announced soon.

Egypt recorded, Saturday, 1,342 new coronavirus cases, upping the total number of confirmed cases to 74,035.

In a statement, Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said 79 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 3,280.

As many as 413 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 20,103 so far, the spokesman said.