Egypt’s railway authority calls on people to stay at home

CAIRO - 20 March 2020: Deputy Chief of the Egyptian Railway Authority Samy Abdel-Tawab called on Egyptians to avoid using public transportation unless necessary to curb the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19).

In an interview with Good Morning Egypt talk show on the state-owned T.V., he said that decreasing the number of commuters or reducing the number of trains will not solve the crisis. He asked people to stay at home.

Around one million commuters are using the railway system in Egypt daily, he said, adding that a total of 47,000 employees work at the authority.

The authority conducted awareness-raising campaigns on the risks of coronavirus for the employees, Abdel Tawab continued. All trains are sterilized before and after the journeys daily, he added.

The Egyptian government is taking gradual steps in dealing with the coronavirus spread, starting from banning the study at schools and universities and suspending the international flights to the end of March. All restaurants, cafes, cafeterias, casinos, night clubs, bars, shopping centers (malls), and other local shops will shut down from 7:00 pm (Cairo time) to 6:00 pm across the nation as of Thursday until March 31.

Meanwhile, all mosques and Islamic places of worship across Egypt were closed for two weeks starting from March 21, 2020, to curb the virus, announced the Egyptian Ministry of Awqaf [Endowment] on Saturday.

As yet the global infected cases of the virus reached 283,268 people and 11,829 deaths were reported, while the recovered cases rose to 93,535. On March 10, 2020, the virus was announced a global pandemic by the World Health Organization.