Nurse at Cairo hospital tests positive for coronavirus, enters quarantine

CAIRO – 5 April 2020: A nurse at a hospital in the capital Cairo tested positive for coronavirus and was put in a quarantine hospital in Ismailia in northeastern Egypt, Al-Azhar University media center said on Saturday. The hospital belongs to the university.

He is one of the cases officially announced by the Health Ministry, the center said in a statement, as Egypt has so far reported 1,070 coronavirus cases and 71 deaths.

The nurse underwent a kidney transplant on March 25th in one of the major hospitals, the statement said, affirming that he has not come to work since then.

The infected nurse and all who were in contact with him were immediately quarantined, according to the statement, and were tested for the virus.

The hospitals of the Al-Azhar University were handed all required preventive tools to protect the medical staff from being infected with coronavirus, the statement noted, adding that the preventive measures will be taken based on the results of the tests conducted.

Late in March, the Egyptian Medical Syndicate confirmed the death of the first doctor in Egypt due to coronavirus. Ahmed Al-Lawah, 57, died in a quarantine hospital in Ismailia in northeastern Egypt.

Also, the country’s National Cancer Institute (NCI) was closed after detecting 17 positive cases of coronavirus among the medical staff.

The Egyptian ministry of health reported Saturday 85 positive cases for coronavirus and 5 deaths, all of them Egyptians, bringing the total number of cases to 1,070. They contracted the virus from previously confirmed cases.

Also, the death toll increased to 71 after 5 new cases died, the ministry said.

The government announced that 25 have recovered from the infection to have the number of those recovered rising to 241. 306 cases changed from positive to negative for coronavirus, including the recovered 241.