Sisi phones China’s Xi Jinping for cooperation on combating COVID-19

CAIRO - 23 March 2020: President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi made a telephone call with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, discussing the possible ways of combating the outbreak of Coronavirus (COVID-19), said Egyptian Presidential Spokesperson Bassam Radi in a statement on Monday.

President Sisi praised the remarkable success achieved by China in containing the virus, expressing Egypt’s aspiration to enhance cooperation and coordination between the health institutions of the two countries to benefit from the anti-coronavirus mechanisms, Radi said.

The Chinese President voiced China’s gratitude for Egypt's rapid support to Beijing in the crisis of Coronavirus pandemic, stressing China’s full readiness to present its assistance to Egypt in fighting the spread of the Coronavirus.

President Sisi called on the Egyptians to abide by the government’s preventive and precautionary measures to curb the outbreak of the virus.

On his official Twitter account, President Sisi said that he is closely following up the state’s efforts to combat the spread of the virus, saying “As I pledged yesterday, we are precisely continuing our procedures to combat this pandemic in order to preserve the health and the life of every Egyptian citizen.”

“I call upon all [Egyptians] to fully abide by these measures to keep Egypt in peace and security... I pray to Allah Almighty to grant us success in what we do to serve our dear country, Egypt,” Sisi said.

The Egyptian Ministry of Health called on the Egyptians to stay at homes unless necessary to avoid the spread of the pandemic, after the number of infected people rose to 327 cases, including 14 deaths so far.

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 coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), announced the Egyptian Ministry of Awqaf [Endowment] on Saturday.

As yet the global infected cases of the virus reached 358,804 people and 15,433 deaths were reported, while the recovered cases rose to 100,645. On March 10, 2020, the virus was announced a global pandemic by the World Health Organization.