COVID-19 cases in Egypt rise to 366; death toll goes up to 19

CAIRO - 23 March 2020: The number of people infected with coronavirus (COVID-19) in Egypt rose to 366 cases after new 39 cases were tested positive for the virus, while the number of deaths rose to 19 on Monday, announced Egypt’s Ministry of Health in a statement.

Ministry Spokesperson Khaled Megahed said that the number of deaths rose to 19 after five people, including four Egyptians and an Indian, died from the virus, noting that a total of recovered cases rose to 96 so far.



President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi called on the Egyptians to abide by the government’s preventive and precautionary measures to curb the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-2019).

On his official Twitter account, President Sisi said that he is closely following up the state’s efforts to combat the spread of the virus, saying “As I pledged yesterday, we are precisely continuing our procedures to combat this pandemic in order to preserve the health and the life of every Egyptian citizen.”

The Egyptian government is taking gradual steps in dealing with the coronavirus spread, starting from banning the study at schools and universities and suspending the international flights to the end of March. All restaurants, cafes, cafeterias, casinos, night clubs, bars, shopping centers (malls), and other local shops will shut down from 7:00 pm (Cairo time) to 6:00 pm across the nation as of Thursday until March 31.

Meanwhile, all mosques and Islamic places of worship across Egypt were closed for two weeks starting from March 21, 2020, to curb the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), announced the Egyptian Ministry of Awqaf [Endowment] on Saturday.

As yet the global infected cases of the virus reached 373,647 people and 12,319 deaths were reported, while the recovered cases rose to 101,399. On March 10, 2020, the virus was announced a global pandemic by the World Health Organization.