Sisi directs to conduct medical tests for Egypt’s National Cancer Institute's patients

CAIRO – 5 April 2020: President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi directed the government to conduct medical tests for all medical staff members and employees of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) which was closed after detecting 17 positive cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) among the staff.

As per the president’s instructions, all the patients who visited the institute over the past two weeks should be subject to PCR tests. Additionally, all the people close to the detected COVID-19 patients will undergo the tests, according to a statement from presidential spokesperson Bassam Radi on Sunday.

"Cairo University has launched an investigation into the infection of 17 doctors and nurses with COVID-19 to determine if this came due to negligence and penalize wrongdoers," spokesperson of Cairo University Mahmoud Alam al-Din announced in a statement released on Saturday.

One day later, the spokesperson announced that all 60 patients lying at the hospital tested negative and are still receiving medical care normally. He added that until present 413 samples have been taken from staff members.

The university requested from the Ministry of Health and Population to acquire 1,000 coronavirus testing devices – at its own expense - to test the medical staff, employees, and patients who turned up to the institute over the past two weeks.

Additional Reporting by Noha El Tawil