Egypt excludes restaurants’ delivery guys from night-time curfew decision

CAIRO – 9 April 2020: "The night-time curfew does not apply to delivery guys at restaurants or to citizens working in food distribution, selling, storing or delivery," announced Assistant Minister of Supply for internal trade affairs Ayman Hossam.

In a phone call with Extra News TV Channel, Hossam said that there is a misunderstanding of the Cabinet decisions, adding that all workers at the nutrition sector will be excluded from the curfew decision. Yet, he assured that all restaurants should abide by the government's decision of that stipulates the closure all restaurants and prohibits receiving citizens.

He continued to say that supermarkets can open during curfew hours, and citizens can go down the street in case of necessity, away from the main streets, in order to buy their needs.

Egypt extended on Wednesday a nationwide night-time curfew by two additional weeks until April 23, and the decision to close down cafes, malls, casinos, night clubs, bars and amusement parks will also be extended until April 23. Airports will also remain closed until the end of the month.

“Our projections for this week were 120-150 cases daily. There will be increases in the number of infections in the coming two or three weeks…but the more important thing is that the rise is slight and gradual,” the prime minister added.

The curfew extension comes one day after Egypt reported nine new deaths on Tuesday, its highest toll in a single day since the first case was detected in the country in mid-February. This is addition to 128 new cases, bringing the total to 1,450 including 94 deaths nationwide.