Daily COVID-19 roundup: July 5

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Here are the latest figures on COVID-19 as of Saturday July 4:

President pushes along sovereign wealth fund investment in medicines warehouse, domestic pharma production scheme

A major project to establish a network of warehouses for strategic reserves of Egyptian-made and imported pharmaceuticals was fast-tracked by the president on Saturday.

Pharmaceutical warehousing and the health sector were earmarked as priorities for targeted investments from Egypt’s sovereign wealth fund back in May. 

On the back of the same meeting, the Egyptian Drug Authority imposed new export restrictions to prevent the country’s reserves from running dry amid rising global demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi led the meeting with the head of the sovereign wealth fund, the PM and the minister of planning, as well as the heads of the new Unified Procurement Authority and the presidential advisor for urban planning.

Sisi directed them to increase the pace of construction of the storage facilities, as well as to procure strategic medical supplies. The warehouses are to cover a wide area to serve the whole country, Masrawy reported on Sunday, citing presidential spokesperson Bassam Rady.

While Sisi said Egypt’s drug reserves could be stocked up from both imports and local production, pharmaceutical companies were directed by the Egyptian Drug Authority to increase their production to cover Egypt’s strategic reserves of medicines, which should cover consumption for a range of six to nine months. 

Meanwhile, the drug authority restricted exports, stipulating that only medicines with a six-month reserve supply could be sold abroad, according to coverage from Al-Borsa. The limit is based on estimated rates of monthly consumption and production, said EDA spokesperson Ali al-Ghamrawy. 

The restrictions were imposed after Egypt’s pharmaceutical exports increased by 10 percent in March and April from the same time last year to $30 million, Masrawy reports. 

As the sovereign wealth fund reorientated its priorities to deal with COVID-19, it selected health as a key priority toward which to channel investments. Soliman mentioned the advantage of “flexibility” and the SWF’s ability to leverage its assets to attract foreign capital at the time. Part of the “flexibility” of the SWF comes from the fact that while the fund is fully state-owned, it operates as an independent body — legally, administratively and financially — and is not subject to parliamentary oversight.

Foreign investment has already been secured elsewhere for the health sector, with the state-owned British CDC announcing plans to inject US$100 million into the health system back on May 11. Al-Ahly Capital, the investment arm of the National Bank of Egypt, is also set to partner with the UAE-based MBF Holdings Group to invest US$150 million in healthcare projects across Egypt. 

In other updates on national health strategy from over the long weekend:

• Nagila Hospital, Egypt’s first specialized facility for COVID-19, has stopped acting as a quarantine hospital. The hospital in Matrouh was sterilized after Health Minister Hala Zayed gave orders for it to open up to all patients, Masrawy reports.
   
• Health committees have been formed in hospitals to study why there has been an uptick in the mortality rate of COVID-19 infections, according to official documents cited in Cairo24. The committees were formed after a series of meetings between Zayed and heads of hospitals.

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What were officials saying about COVID-19 on Tuesday?  

“At the beginning of the pandemic, the infection rate was exponential … We are now following a quadratic equation… We will reach at least 100,000 cases by end of the month” — Professor Hesham al-Askary, director of computational and data science graduate programs at Chapman University

Professor Hesham al-Askary, who works with the Higher Education Ministry on models to predict infection rates, spoke over the phone to DMC’s talk show Masr Tastateia on the current predictions for Egypt’s epidemiological situation. 

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“The Doctors Syndicate’s Complaints Committee received an official complaint about the disappearance of Dr. Ahmed Safwat [on June 28] … What I feel now is an overflow of bitterness and frustration. I thought that Dr. Safwat was isolating at home because he was suffering from COVID-19 symptoms. I thought he had turned off his phone to relax during this mandatory vacation” — Dr. Mona Mina, Former Deputy Head of Doctors Syndicate  

A second doctor involved in union organizing could be in the custody of Egypt’s state security services. 

Dr. Ahmed Safwat, a volunteer at the syndicate’s Complaints Committee, disappeared on June 28 and has been incommunicado ever since, according to former syndicate deputy head Dr. Mona Mina, who cited a report by his family. 

The disappearance of Dr. Safwat comes a few days after security forces arrested Dr. Mohamed al-Fawal, a board member of Sharqiya’s chamber of the doctors syndicate, whose detention is related to comments he posted criticizing the PM’s response to doctors during the pandemic.

“Syndicate organizing is not a crime,” wrote Dr. Mona Mina. Syndicate activity is supposedly protected under the law, which bans arresting members for their work with the syndicate, said the Doctors’ Syndicate in a letter sent to the Public Prosecutor on June 30 demanding the release of Dr. Fawal. 

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Coexistence with COVID-19  

After businesses in the tourism sector reopened on July 1, six beach operators and two coffee shops in Alexandria have already been fined for violating protective measures, while another coffee shop has been shut down, reports Cairo24. The coffee shops did not adhere to social distancing and a 25 percent cap on customer capacity. Another coffee shop has been shut down for offering customers shisha. A similar security campaign in Mahalla al-Kobra saw 39 shops face penalties for breaking the regulations, reports Cairo24.

Despite a gradual reopening, the pandemic’s economic impact will take some time to correct. The deputy aviation minister has said that the sector incurred losses of up to LE1 billion per month while flights were suspended. He said that 95 percent of flights were full in the first week since operations resumed, reports Cairo24.

In other news on how the “coexistence with COVID-19” plan has rolled out:

• Al-Hussein Mosque was shut down for an undetermined period after several prayer goers violated precautionary measures set by the ministry as a condition for reopening, reports Cairo24.
   
• Misr University for Science and Technology waived the annual increase in tuition fees for students in the academic year beginning this September, citing the economic condition since the pandemic began, reports Cairo24.
   
• The Journalists Syndicate building will reopen starting Sunday with 10 precautionary measures, reports Cairo24. The measures include going through sterilization gates, wearing masks, social distancing and measuring temperatures.

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Working with COVID-19

Despite many sectors opening up on July 1, the Manpower Ministry is expanding a payment service offered from its emergency fund to supply companies with the cash to pay workers in sectors harmed by the pandemic. 

Workers in both the public and private textile and weaving sector, in addition to a number of private companies in unspecified sectors whose activities were halted by the pandemic, are to receive payments of their base salaries for the first time this month. 

In a statement yesterday, Labor Minister Mohamed Safaan announced that the ministry’s Emergency Benefits Fund is nearly finished disbursing emergency benefits to workers in sectors affected by the coronavirus amounting to nearly LE318 million to 275,543 workers at over 2,600 facilities.  

The Emergency Fund operates under the umbrella of formal social insurance and is financed by contributions from social insurance fees employers take from employees’ salaries.

It was established in 2002 and is tasked with paying the base salary assistance for formally employed workers and employees whose companies or factories cease operation, or in the case of partial or full shutdowns. 

From May until now, the fund was assisting with salary payments for regular workers, in both the private and public tourism sector. The assistance will now be available to companies in other sectors. 

In other news of how notable people are being affected by COVID-19:

• Noted actress Raja al-Jeddawi has died of COVID-19.
  
• Abbas Rashed, manager of the office of Ismailia’s Deputy Endowment Minister, passed away in hospital today due to COVID-19.
  
• Two players for the Zamalek football team tested positive for COVID-19. The club has opposed plans to resume the Egyptian Premier League.
  
• Two players and a member of the medical staff of Ismailia’s football club were reported to have tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday. The football club also opposes plans to resume games.
• Deputy director of the Shubra police station, Lieutenant Colonel Hisham Ettman, has contracted COVID-19.