WHO rep. says Egypt’s coronavirus counts not disturbing, urges increasing tests

CAIRO – 24 April 2020: The counts of coronavirus patients in Egypt are not disturbing, said John Jabbour, the representative of the World Health Organization in Egypt on Thursday evening, affirming the need to control the increasing infection rate.

In an interview with Ramy Radwan on dmc, Jabbour said social distancing should be maintained during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, in order to avoid the quick increase in infection rates.

He said WHO always urges increasing the number of tests to discover more coronavirus patients, noting that the increase in number of tests is a positive development within the framework of the strategy of preventive measures to face coronavirus.

Flattening the curve depends of the extent of people’s commitment to the preventive measures, Jabbour said, noting that coronavirus will be present during the coming period and that new waves of infections can take place.

Jabbour said more than 90 countries are participating in experiments to find a coronavirus treatment.

This echoes the remarks of Egypt’s Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli, who said on Thursday that the state and the people in Egypt have to cope with coronavirus impacts via precautionary measures as the disease could exist for a long time.

In a press conference, Madbouli said the state has balanced between taking preventive measures against coronavirus and allowing the economy and production to continue, adding that there is a qualitative change that took place in many countries' vision toward fighting coronavirus, including deciding to open the economy, after millions of workers lost their jobs.

It is expected that the total number of coronavirus cases will increase during the next period in Egypt, Mabdouli said.

The current situation amid the coronavirus crisis in Egypt goes as planned but the state may have to take tougher measures if the situation worsens, he said.

Egypt shortens partial curfew during holy month of Ramadan

CAIRO - 23 April 2020: Egyptian Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli announced that the night-time curfew hours were shortened to start from 9:00 pm to 6:00 am during the holy month of Ramadan, the ninth month of the Islamic Calendar when Muslims worldwide fast from dusk to dawn.

Egypt’s Ministry of Health announced Thursday 232 new coronavirus cases, in an expected surge of the daily detected patients, while 11 people died from the virus.

Health Ministry Spokesman Khaled Megahed said that all of the new cases are Egyptians.

The new cases raise the total number of confirmed COVID-19 patients in Egypt to 3,891 and deaths to 287, Megahed added.

The number of coronavirus cases whose tests turned from positive to negative increased to 1,334, including 1,004 people who recovered from the virus. All positive cases were quarantined at hospitals, the spokesman said.