In-person classes at Helwan’s Engineering Faculty suspended after student died of coronavirus: sources

CAIRO – 26 December 2020: Officials decided to suspend in-person classes at Helwan University’s Faculty of Engineering for three days, after a senior student died of coronavirus, said sources at the university.

Classes will be suspended starting Saturday, so that disinfection teams can sterilize the faculty buildings and halls.

Students will be able to take classes online until the faculty is reopened on Tuesday, according to the sources.

Earlier this month, Education Minister Tarek Shawky said attendance for pre-university students will be optional until the end of the semester, in light of the pandemic.

Last week, Health Minister Hala Zayed officially announced that Egypt is facing the second wave of coronavirus.

The Cabinet, in response, announced further measures to curb the spread of the novel virus, including cancelling the New Year celebrations and pledging tough penalties against hotels violating the decision.

The decisions also included imposing an immediate fine on people not wearing face masks in closed places and public transportation.

Cabinet spokesman Nader Saad, in remarks to media, said the ventilator use rose to 42 percent and that Egypt has prepared the same number of hospitals for quarantine as that it prepared during the peak of the first wave.

The Egyptian Health Ministry said 1,133 new coronavirus cases were detected over Friday, upping the total number of confirmed cases to 130,126.

In a statement, Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said 49 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 7,309.

As many as 511 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 108,985 so far, the spokesman said.