Egypt secures 35,000 beds, 8 million drug doses for coronavirus patients: Ministry

CAIRO – 31 May 2020: The number of university hospitals ready to provide medical care to COVID-19 patients is 113 having 35,000 beds, said Egyptian Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel Ghaffar. At present, 23 of those treat coronavirus patients.

Abdel Ghaffar’s remarks came during a joint press conference with Minister of Health Hala Zayed on Sunday.

Zayed, during the conference said, until present, 8 million medicine doses were offered to individuals in the surroundings of positive cases, 2 million doses were given to patients receiving treatment at home, and half a million doses were secured to in-patients.

Zayed stated that the number of quarantine hospitals rose from 18 to 340 with a total capacity of 35,152 beds, 3,539 ICU beds, 2,218 ventilators, 125 CT scanners, and 643 X-Ray devices.

Thirty-seven hospitals are being prepared to receive COVID-19 cases so that the total will become 347. That is in addition to securing 1,000 mobile medical clinics to provide care for cases quarantined at home.

To date, 65 mobile clinics were operated to distribute such doses. The clinics reached the farthest point in Egyptian territories, which is Bahi El Din village located near the borders with Libya western the country.

By the end of this week, 57 PCR labs affiliated to the Ministry of Health and Population and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research will be in place after adding 8 labs. Currently, there are 32 PCR labs affiliated to the former and 17 affiliated to the latter.

Minister Zayed revealed that the 7 governorates with top infections are Cairo, Giza, Qalyoubiyah, Monofeya, Fayoum, Alexandria and Beheira. The total figure in those governorates until May 30 is 15,415.

Egypt has recorded 1,367 new coronavirus, COVID-19 cases, Saturday, raising the total number of confirmed cases since the outbreak in Egypt to 23,449.

Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said in the daily briefing that 34 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 913.

As many as 182 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 5,693 so far, the spokesman said.

The number of coronavirus patients who had now been retested for the virus and received negative results has reached 6,456, he added.