Egypt’s Zewail City produces ventilators for COVID-19 patients

CAIRO 5 April 2020: The Zewail City of Science and Technology has started producing two models of ventilators for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) patients, the city announced in a statement on Saturday.

"The new automatic ventilators will be used in the pre- intensive care unit (ICU) stage," the statement added, noting that the usage of these kinds of ventilators helps the patients who could wait for a long time until they find places in the ICUs.

Components of the ventilators are locally manufactured, according to the statement. This initiative aims at tackling the shortage of ventilators, of which Egypt has limited numbers.

"President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi ordered the government to manufacture ventilators," Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli said on March 28.

The Egyptian Ministry of Health reported Saturday 85 positive cases of coronavirus and five new deaths; all of them are Egyptians, who contracted the virus from previous cases.

As yet, The number of those who tested positive for the virus exceeded 1000 to be 1070, including 241 recovered and 71 deaths.

Since mid-March, the Egyptian government has taken gradual steps in dealing with the coronavirus spread, starting with suspending schools and universities. It also suspended the international flights until mid-April.

Furthermore, a partial two-week curfew was imposed on March 24, 2020, while all restaurants, cafes, cafeterias, casinos, night clubs, bars, shopping centers (malls), and other local shops shut down completely until April 14, 2020.

Additionally, the Ministry of Awqaf [Endowment] extended the closure of the mosques and the places of worship nationwide until further notice.