Egypt extends mid-year vacation for schools, universities for week amid pandemic

CAIRO – 13 February 2021: The Egyptian Cabinet’s supreme committee tasked with managing the coronavirus crisis announced extending the mid-year vacation for schools and universities for an extra week.

As per the decision, the vacation ends on February 26 and then the second semester and the first semester’s adjourned exams will be resumed.

The Saturday decision was taken as Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly and a number of ministers and officials held a meeting to discuss the educational process during the coming period amid the pandemic.

Minister of Education Tarek Shawki and Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel Ghaffar are set to announce late the mechanism and details about the first semester exams.

During the meeting, Minister of Health Hala Zayed said the country has secured a strategic stock of liquified oxygen that amounts to 1.16 million liters.

So far, Egypt has recorded a total of 172,602 coronavirus cases and 9,899 deaths due to the pandemic.

Egypt has started its vaccination campaign in January, starting with the medical teams at quarantine hospitals, for being on top of priority groups in terms of vaccination.

Late in January, Egypt received 50,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the second batch to be delivered to the country after the China’s Sinopharm batch in December.

Speaking before the House of Representatives in February, Zayed said that Egypt received on that day the third batch of the Chinese vaccine.

She added that Egypt managed to strike international deals to import 100 million vaccine doses in 2021 thanks to its good relations with other countries.

Zayed said in statements to MBC channel, that the Ministry will start vaccinating the elderly along with people with chronic diseases against COVID, in mid-February.