Egypt extends measures to combat Covid-19 as infections rise

Egypt’s cabinet has announced an extension of anti-coronavirus measures as the country grapples with a spike in daily Covid-19 cases.

JOHANNESBURG, May 20 (ANA) – Egypt’s cabinet has announced an extension of anti-coronavirus measures as the country grapples with a spike in daily Covid-19 cases, according to Ahram Online.

The publication reported on Wednesday that the current measures were set to expire on Saturday but will now remain in place until May 21.

The measures that will be imposed stipulate that all shops, malls, coffee shops, restaurants and movie theatres should close at 9pm, while all public activities nationwide have been banned until further notice, Ahram Online reported.

However, parks, gardens and beaches will remain open.

According to Ahram Online, another measure put in place by Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly was to reduce the attendance of state administrative employees.

Madbouly also ordered an expansion of the national programme to vaccinate workers in all tourism institutions nationwide, more especially since tourism employees in the Red Sea and South Sinai regions have been vaccinated.

Students at international schools will be allowed to attend classes only until May 31 and schooling will continue online beginning in June.

According to Arab News, Egypt has seen a concerning rise in daily new coronavirus virus case numbers after almost 700 cases a day were recorded.

On May 10, Xinhua reported that Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed said that Egypt would start locally producing China’s Sinovac coronavirus vaccine in June.

“We will receive the first shipment of the raw materials needed to manufacture the vaccine on May 18,” Zayed said at the time.

According to her, 40 million doses will be produced in the first year.

Egypt has to date recorded 249,238 Covid-19 cases with 183,696 recoveries and 14,498 deaths.

– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher