Egypt records 139 new coronavirus cases amid state’s efforts to hit zero cases

CAIRO - 17 August 2020: Egypt recorded, Wednesday, 139 new coronavirus (COVID-19) cases, upping the total number of confirmed cases to 96,475, amid calls by the president on citizens to take preventive measures, in order for the country to hit zero new cases soon.

In a statement, Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said 19 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 5,160.

As many as 908 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 59,743 so far, the spokesman said.

Statistics for the Ministry of Health and Population revealed last week that the recovery rates for people infected with coronavirus in quarantine hospitals have risen to 53.1 percent for the first time since the beginning of the crisis.

Concerning the state’s efforts in dealing with the new coronavirus (COVID-19), President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on Sunday said that the country has achieved great success in facing the COVID-19 crisis, saying “the crisis was not severe, and the rates [of infection] were improved.”

He called upon the people to be pay attention to avoid the infection, in order to reach a zero infection nationwide.

“We must realize that there will be no complacency in dealing with the virus, because this will reflect on society [negatively]. Therefore, the society as citizens, agencies and the state must […] keep public health not affected […], especially in light of opening the schools in winter,” President Sisi said.