New coronavirus cases in Egypt drop below 600 for 1st time in 40 days

CAIRO – 29 January 2021: Egypt officially recorded on Thursday 521 new coronavirus cases, the least daily count since December 15 and the first below 600 since December 18.

This ups the total number of confirmed cases to 164,282, according to figures released by the Health Ministry.

Spokesman for the ministry Khaled Megahed said 54 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 9,169.

As many as 477 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 128,440 so far, the spokesman said.

Vaccination campaign

Vaccinating the first doctor and nurse included in the Health Ministry’s anti-coronavirus campaign on Sunday, Egypt has started providing vaccines to medical workers in 40 quarantine hospitals nationwide.

In a press conference, Minister Hala Zayed announced that the vaccination campaign kicked off from Abu Khalifa hospital in Ismailia city, to vaccinate medical staff at these hospitals as they are among the most vulnerable to contract the novel virus.

The vaccine will be provided free of charge for all medical workers nationwide.

The elderly shall come second in the campaign.

Zayed urged everyone who is over 65 years old to head to the closest public hospital for registration to obtain the vaccine.

The minister affirmed that Egypt is set to obtain more than 100 million doses of different vaccines. She noted that the state contracted with Chinese, British and Russian companies to obtain the doses.

Zayed said the ministry has the required cooling facilities to store 140 million doses of the vaccine.

Priority groups also include the medical staff in chest and fevers hospitals, as well as cancer or kidney failure patients, older people and persons suffering from chronic diseases.

Read more about Egypt's vaccination plan.