Egypt reports 547 new coronavirus cases, 46 deaths on Saturday

CAIRO – 30 January 2021: The Health Ministry said that 547 new coronavirus cases were detected on Saturday, upping the total number of confirmed cases to 165,418.

In a statement, Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said 46 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 9,263.

As many as 493 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 129,293 so far, the spokesman said.

Egypt would receive the first batch of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, consisting of 50,000 doses, on Sunday, announced the Egyptian Authority for Unified Procurement, Medical Supply and Technology Management (AUPP) in a statement on Saturday.

The AUPP had contracted with the British-Swedish pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company to get 20 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

Presidential advisor for health affairs Awad Tag El-Din said Egypt has passed the peak of the second coronavirus wave as daily cases drastically dropped and continues to decrease.

Egypt reported 1,418 new coronavirus cases on December 31, the highest daily count since July 3. Cases then started to decrease until reaching 512 on Thursday, the lowest toll since then.

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.