Egypt's PM reassured about securing drugs amid COVID-19 crisis

CAIRO - 21 June 2020: Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli on Sunday was briefed on efforts of the Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) between June 8-17 to secure citizens’ and state’s needs of medicines to confront the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

The premier pointed out to President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s directives to closely follow up the provision of medicines used as a treatment of COVID-19 and other diseases.

He reassured the people that the government has been working on securing enough stock of medical supplies, affirming there is no need of stockpiling the drugs and supply commodities like what happened when the curfew was announced nationwide.

The premier pleaded with the people not to stockpile commodities and drugs, noting that the Health Ministry provides drugs for COVID-19 patients for free.

In a report submitted to Madbouli, Chairman of the EDA Tamer Essam said the authority has secured drugs used in the COVID-19 treatment protocol for patients quarantined at home.

On June 20, Egypt recorded 1547 new coronavirus cases, upping the total number of confirmed cases to 53758.

In a statement, Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said 89 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 2106.

As many as 399 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 14327 so far, the spokesman said.

Also, the number of coronavirus patients who had now been retested for the virus and had received negative results has reached 15779, he added.

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry called, Friday, for providing access to new technologies for disease detection or developing a new vaccine and treatment to all states, particularly to African countries, at reasonable prices.