Video: Egypt's Sisi reprimands officials for failing to provide construction workers with masks

CAIRO - 9 April 2020: President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi reprimanded officials at a construction site Thursday for not providing workers with masks to protect them from COVID-19.

“Orders must be followed. Why aren’t these people wearing masks? How much are they even paid in a day? Because if they had to stay home, they wouldn’t be able to make ends meet,” Sisi fervently says in a video of the incident.

Sisi was inspecting construction sites when he came across construction workers without face masks.



“I will pass by here again, and if I do not see the measures applied, there will be a big problem,” the president added before leaving the site.

A total of 139 cases of the coronavirus and 15 deaths were announced Thursday by Egypt’s Ministry of Health, bringing the total number of infections to 1,699 and deaths to 118.

It was added that the number of coronavirus cases whose tests turned from positive to negative increased to 468, including 348 people who have recovered from the novel virus.

On Friday, Egypt’s Local Development Minister Mahmoud Shaarawy emphasised the importance of applying government instructions of providing blue-collar workers and dustmen with the necessary protective gear and masks to help curb the spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic in the country. Janitors and dustmen will be given free masks, as per Sisi's orders, Shaarawy added.

The Egyptian government has launched a program to help irregular and unregistered workers victimized by the anti-COVID-19 decision, including the nightly curfew, and provides assistance to some privately owned companies, especially in the tourism sector, to maintain their workforce.