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Egypt to ban street vendors outside schools as precautionary covid measure

September 4, 2020 at 12:47 pm

Street vendors sell shoes next at the Al-Attaba market in the centre of the Egyptian capital Cairo on 21 February 2018. [KHALED DESOUKI/AFP via Getty Images]

The Egyptian government has announced that street vendors outside schools will be banned as part of extra measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The government is implementing a special strategy for schools to coincide with the start of the new academic year, under which school kids will have to bring their own meals and bottled water.

The Education Minister Tarek Shawki has already pushed the start of the school year to October, instead of the normal September.

Temporary isolation rooms will be set up for staff and pupils suspected of having the virus and school buses will be disinfected regularly.

READ: Another Egyptian dies in prison due to medical negligence

Pupils will each be at a different desk, which is set to be a challenge in Egypt. Earlier this year the AUC published an academic paper which said that 75 per cent of school kids sit in overcrowded classrooms.

Since March, classes in schools have been suspended and pupils have worked online amid continuous discussions about what the new school year would look like.

The guidance comes as Egypt’s recorded cases of COVID-19 hit nearly 100,000 yesterday since the start of the outbreak in February.

There has been debate across the world about whether it is safe to send children back to school, with several experts saying that it is better for their mental health and others arguing that it is not safe.

Some scientific papers have said very few children become seriously ill with the virus.