Egypt establishes Supreme Council of Health

CAIRO - 7 May 2020: Egypt will establish a supreme council of health to support and strengthen the health sector, announced the cabinet in a statement Tuesday evening.

Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouli has directed the government to establish the council, which will come under his presidency, the statement added.

The council will be tasked with preparing a unified strategy for a service that includes all agencies operating in the health system. The council will also organize the work between governmental and private hospitals.

In addition to this, the council will be responsible for drawing up a plan for accelerating the development works at the hospitals nationwide, the statement said.

As the government has earlier announced establishing a national center for crisis and health disaster management, many Parliament members have endorsed the step and considered it vital during the current battle against the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. They also called for granting the center a strong authority.

In an interview with Egypt Today, Secretary of the Parliament’s Health Committee Sami Al-Mashad said the goals and terms of reference of the planned center would be determined during the coming period, considering it a very important step while dealing with the coronavirus crisis.

The new center will have a role in the assessment of the coronavirus challenge in Egypt, to help the state institutions benefit from this experience and develop their performance in the event of any future crisis.

“Crisis management is a very important and effective matter concerning confrontation and solutions,” he added.

In its daily briefing on the coronavirus cases in Egypt, a total of 387 people tested positive for the virus recently, making one of the highest daily counts in Egypt, and 17 people died with the novel virus, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.

This brings the total number of reported cases and deaths to 7,588 and 469 respectively, the ministry said.

The test results of 2,314 people of the reported cases turned from positive to negative, including 1,815 people who fully recovered.

Also, 85 cases, all of them Egyptians, left the hospital after they recovered, according to the instructions of the World Health Organization (WHO).