Egypt registers 521 new coronavirus cases, 47 deaths Tuesday

CAIRO - 3 February 2020: The Ministry of Health announced in a Monday staement that 521 new coronavirus cases were detected, upping the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 167,013.

Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said 47 coronavirus-linked deaths were registered over the past 24 hours, raising the overall death toll to 9,407 since the outset of the pandemic. The total number of recovered cases so far to 130,514, the spokesman added.

About 70 percent of deaths in Egypt are due to chronic diseases including diabetes, heart disease, stress and cancer according to the World Health Organization official, Randa Abul-Naga.

She added that up to 40 million people die around the world from chronic diseases.

Abul-Naga hailed Egypt’s effort to control the spreading of chronic diseases especially through the presidential initiative to provide health care to people with chronic diseases all over the country.

She also indicated that there is a great challenge in providing health services to people with chronic diseases especially in the time of Coronaviruses.

Last October, Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed said that more than 10 million citizens have been examined, as part of the President's initiative to examine and treat people with chronic diseases.

The ministry said it has provided treatment to 1,385,199 citizens free of charge, including 388,170 cases suffering from hypertension and 419,000 cases suffering from diabetes.