Egypt: 630 doctors died of covid

Some 630 medical personnel have died as a result of the coronavirus in Egypt, the Egyptian Medical Syndicate announced yesterday.

“Seven new doctors have died of coronavirus in the last 24 hours,” the syndicate said in a statement amid reports of rising numbers of infections across the North African country.

The statement added that the fatalities included “Ahmed Seddik Alam El Din from the Suez province, Hala Mohamed Abu Ghusaiyba from the Tanta province, Mostafa Sayed Abdel Hafez from Kafr El-Sheikh, and Mohamed Ali Hammouda from Benha.”

At the end of September Egypt’s medical union announced that 600 doctors had died since the start of the pandemic.

The Egyptian government has been under heavy criticism since the start of the coronavirus pandemic for corruption and failing to invest in its own healthcare system which is on the verge of collapse.

Several health care professionals have been arrested and detained for questioning the government’s official death toll which is thought to be roughly 13 times higher than what is announced.

Egypt ranks fifth worldwide for underreporting coronavirus.

So far, a total of 338,414 have contracted the virus in Egypt, 19,130 of whom have died, and 283,747 others have recovered, according to the US’ Worldometers.

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