Egypt confirms highest daily rise of new COVID-19 cases

An Egyptian doctor adjusts the protective mask covering a young patient’s face at the infectious diseases unit of the Imbaba hospital in the capital Cairo, on 19 April 2020, during the novel coronavirus pandemic crisis [AHMED HASAN/AFP via Getty Images]

Egypt on Saturday confirmed 1,677 new coronavirus cases and 62 deaths, the health ministry said, the highest daily increase for both counts.

In total, the Arab world’s most populous country has registered 42,980 cases including 1,484 deaths, the ministry said in a statement, quoted by Reuters.

Last week, Egypt’s medical union announced that 47 doctors had died from coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.

Despite the fact that the government has labelled doctors who died of covid martyrs and the state-run media have referred to them as the white army, there is huge discontent among the medical community over how they have been treated by authorities throughout the pandemic. The medical union recently warned that the healthcare system in the country is close to collapse and asked authorities to step up measures to protect their doctors.

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Shortly after the warning, the country’s state-run media launched an incitement campaign against doctors with MP Farag Amer accusing the Muslim Brotherhood of turning doctors against Egypt and forcing them to resign.

Doctors have called for a full lockdown as they struggle to find spaces for patients and themselves, in isolation units, adequate preventative equipment and tests.

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