Egypt records 388 new coronavirus cases, 16 deaths

CAIRO – 5 May 2020: Egypt recorded, Tuesday 388 new coronavirus cases and 16 deaths, which raises the total infected patients of COVID-19 to 7201 and the total deaths to 452 according to Health Minister’s daily briefing.

Health Ministry Spokesman Khaled Megahed added that 98 patients, were discharged from the hospital after being confirmed that they are completely recovered from the viruses, this also raises the number of recovered cases to 1730 out of 2224 who had been retested for the virus and had received negative results.

On Tuesday, Egypt’s Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel Ghaffar referred to the efforts of Egyptian universities and research centers in carrying out most of the clinical trials in Africa, with 22 clinical trials out of 30 experiments conducted by African countries.

According to the clinical trials website, the minister announced that Egypt ranks first among Middle Eastern and African countries carrying out experiments to find a cure for the emerging coronavirus "Covid-19".

Abdel Ghaffar stressed that Egypt has conducted half of the experiments carried out by countries in the Middle East to find a medicine that resists the emerging coronavirus; the Middle Eastern countries have carried out 44 experiments since the outbreak of the virus in China.

He pointed out that Egypt comes at the forefront, followed by Iran, Israel, Turkey, Cyprus, Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq.

Egypt also announced on May 3, that it will start injecting plasma of patients who have recovered from the deadly coronavirus (COVID-19) into severely ill patients with the novel virus, Health Minister Hala Zayed said.

Plasma from recovered cases has the antibodies required to battle the virus inside other patients and curb its replication.

Zayed said that Egypt has the required experience in the convalescent plasma therapy and that the ministry is working hard through scientific research to find treatment for coronavirus patients.

On April 23, 2020, 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.

Madbouli added that the commercial centers are allowed to open over the whole week until 5:00 pm.

The Prime Minister announced that the state and the Egyptians have to cope with COVID-19 impacts via precautionary measures as the disease could exist for a long time.