Egypt to produce ventilators for COVID-19 patients

CAIRO - 29 March 2020: "Under President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi’s mandate, the Egyptian government will manufacture ventilators amid the shortage the world faces during the war against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19)," said Cabinet media advisor Hani Younis.

"During a meeting with Minister of Industry Nevin Gamei and Head of the Federation of Egyptian Industries (FEI) Mohamed al-Siwidy on Saturday, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli said that President Sisi ordered manufacturing the ventilators and providing the Egyptian factories with the supplies they need to prevent importations amid the current coronavirus crisis," Younis told "Al-Hikaya" talk show on MBC channel.

Younis added that the government asserted that all facilities will be provided concerning this matter.

Gamei told “Al-Youm” talk show on DMC channel that the Cabinet issued a decree to exclude the workers of pharmaceutical and food factories from the partial 14-day curfew that has been imposed since March 24, 2020.

Many countries around the globe suffer from a shortage of ventilators. US President Donald Trump ordered General Motors to produce ventilators for the Covid-19 patients, Time reported on Saturday. Italy, which is facing an uncontrolled situation of the virus' spread, suffered a massive shortage of ventilators to the extent that hospitals changed the scuba diving masks into ventilators, CBC news stated on Saturday. Meanwhile, the European Union has set a plan to produce more ventilators.

The Egyptian Ministry of Health confirmed Saturday 40 new cases of COVID-19, including one Jordanian national, to raise the number of coronavirus patients in Egypt to 576. The death toll rose to 36 people after confirming six more deaths [five Egyptians and one Italian].

"The total number of the recovered people rose to 161 cases so far, while those who have been discharged from the isolation hospitals reached 121," the ministry added.

As yet, the global cases infected with the virus reached 680,453 people and 31,912 deaths were reported, while the recovered cases rose to 146,352. On March 10, 2020, the virus was announced a global pandemic by the World Health Organization.