Egypt reports 118 new coronavirus cases, 11 fatalities

CAIRO – 16 October 2020: Egypt's Health Ministry said early on Friday that 118 new coronavirus cases were detected, upping the total number of confirmed cases since the outbreak in the country began to 105,033.

In a statement, Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said 11 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 6,088.

As many as 91 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 98,011 so far, the spokesman said.

Egypt’s Minister of Health Hala Zayed said on 13 October, that a total of 2,300 persons in Egypt have undergone the clinical trials for a candidate Chinese vaccine.  

She added that 1,770 people among them were subjected to full research, and 498 were excluded.

Egypt is planning to apply the clinical trials on 6,000 people, and in case 215 persons were infected with COVID-19, the codes of the vaccine will be dismantled and the research will be halted. Then, they will wait for one year along with the measurement of antibodies of the volunteers, and then manufacture the vaccine.

The vaccine will be prepared at Factory 60 at VACSERA, she continued.  

Zayed assured that Egypt has a network of 600 hospital across the country prepared to deal with possible rise in infections as part of a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.

During a press conference held in coordination with WHO, Zayed said: “we developed 45 fever and chest hospitals, and the development process of the remaining hospitals is underway.”

She said that the political leadership has gave huge attention to the Coronavirus pandemic issue, and strongly supported efforts confronting it, adding that “the treatment protocols are being update according to international standards.”