Daily COVID-19 roundup: June 10

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Here are the latest figures on COVID-19 as of Tuesday, June 9:

• The scientific team steering Egypt’s response to the coronavirus sees a substantial increase in the number of cases.
  • Egypt’s epidemiological peak could see 2,000-2,500 new cases per day said Dr. Hossam Hosny, the head of the Scientific Committee to Combat Coronavirus, speaking on Monday night to Lamees al-Hadidy’s talk show Al-Qahira Alaan on the Hadath channel. According to Dr. Hosny’s predictions, the upward trajectory is set to continue through June before the number of cases stabilizes in July, while the downward stretch “will start on July 15.” It’s one of the clearest statements yet to come from the government, which was saying until last week that it was impossible to anticipate when Egypt’s pandemic would peak. 
  • Hosny also pinned the blame for the spread on the Egyptian population at large. “Social distancing is more important than the lockdown,” he said, and “citizens did not adhere to social distancing.” He pointed a finger at young people going out in groups in public spaces.
  • On Tuesday, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbuly met with Information Minister Osama Heikal, making it clear that the Information Ministry is responsible for public messaging around the coronavirus. After a meeting with Heikal to discuss how the “Egyptian media is handling” the pandemic and its efforts to raise awareness, Madbuly said that the government’s media strategy is to ensure that Egypt has a “strong media at times of crisis to spread awareness and fight rumors.” 
  • Speaking on his show, Kol Youm, TV presenter Khaled Abou Bakr blasted the president’s health advisor Dr. Mohamed Tag Eddin for broadcasting the “rhetoric” coming out of “private pharmaceutical companies.” Speaking on the ON Satellite channel, Abou Bakr was responding to comments Tag Eddin gave to the press in which he praised a coronavirus vaccine which is still being trialed by Oxford scientists and AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical. Abou Bakr explained it wasn’t for government figures to publicize private health initiatives.
     
• Problems in how hospitals are processing COVID-19 patients surfaced again in today’s headlines. 
  • Complaints and videos shared on social media claimed that the Nile Insurance Hospital in Shubra al-Kheima had shut its doors to patients confirmed to have COVID-19, as well as to suspected patients. Cairo24 reports on the matter, citing hospital director Dr. Eid al-Attar, who both denied the claims, as well as saying the hospital was 100% occupied. “We are providing coronavirus-related outpatient services, tests and scans for around 250 patients on a daily basis, said Dr. al-Attar. 
  • Elsewhere, a doctor from Luxor has described admissions for COVID-19 patients as overly centralized, rendering it difficult for doctors to make decisions based on the circumstances on the ground. Dr. Hossam Fathy from Luxor’s Esna Specialized Hospital explained in a post on his personal Facebook page, reproduced by the Al-Bawaba news website, that the hospital and its staff have been unable to decide whether to admit patients to quarantine wards, and have had to depend on decisions from the Health Directorate, which is required in turn to send the names of patients requiring admission to the Health Ministry. The directorate then gets back to the hospitals to tell them how to proceed, according to Fathy. “We are only functionaries, we have neither the jurisdiction nor the authority to identify and choose the cases that will enter quarantine in the hospital,” Fathy wrote on Tuesday.
     
• Monetizing blood plasma donations from those who have recovered from coronavirus remained in headlines for a second day on Tuesday.
  • A black market for coronavirus antibody-rich plasma is emerging, claims MP Ayman Abou al-Ela.
  • The Health Ministry also moved to keep tabs on plasma donations and treatment, barring private hospitals and labs from handling the plasma of recovered COVID-19 patients. Only five blood banks under the Health Ministry are authorized to collect the plasma, said Head of Blood Banks for the ministry Dr. Ihab Sarag Eddin.
     
• The Doctors Syndicate was once again pleading on Tuesday for the Cabinet to strengthen the protections in place to prevent medical staff from being exposed to the coronavirus, with the vast majority of Egypt’s healthcare system now deployed in the national response to COVID-19. In a letter to the PM, the doctors outlined seven demands:
  • Ensuring COVID-19 patients are dealt with via separate pathways to limit the chance of contact with other patients
  • Working to reduce crowding inside hospitals, calling for more waiting rooms 
  • Improving the supply of personal protective equipment and the number of high-quality tests run, with special emphasis on medical masks for staff
  • Excepting any vulnerable medical staff members, including those who are elderly, pregnant, or have chronic diseases, from serving on teams handling COVID-19 
  • Improving conditions at doctors’ on-site accommodation, due to substandard provision at social distancing at many existing facilities
  • Supplying hospitals with a proper police presence, citing increased incidents of assaults against medical staff
  • Ramping up testing capacity nationwide, citing longer and longer waiting times for test results
     
• Tuesday also saw updates in other public attacks on doctors.
  • A court session in a lawsuit that was filed against the Doctors Syndicate for speaking out was adjourned on Tuesday until July 9, when a Court of Urgent Matters will look into an appeal against the suit. The case was first raised by Salah Bikheit and Hany Sameh, a couple of citizens who’ve seemingly taken it upon themselves to suppress the syndicate. The syndicate is accused of “committing dangerous crimes threatening national security” by assuming an “anti-state, inciting, provocative attitude.” The lawsuit also blames the syndicate for shortages in supplies and staffing 
  • Dr. Nibal Dahba, head of Sanofi Pasteur in Egypt, Sudan, and Eritrea was reportedly fired after doctors threatened to sever ties with the company due to tweets she had posted accusing doctors of acting as Muslim Brotherhood-appointed moles, and of receiving foreign funding. Dahba had likewise taken umbrage at doctors complaints about working conditions during the pandemic.
  • Al-Azhar, meanwhile, made a bid to console the doctors by telling them that their work in the pandemic is equivalent to jihad.
  • On how monopolies and price gouging for medical supplies and equipment are judged in Islam, Al-Azhar also issued a fatwa declaring the practices are prohibited.

Who cares for the healthcare workers?

• News of health workers suffering the effects of the pandemic on the front line on Tuesday: 
  •  Dr. Hisham Abdel Hamid, a pediatrician at the Helwan General Hospital, has died after contracting the coronavirus, as have Dr. Fillip Metry Gergis, Dr. Fayek Fakhry Dimitirious, and Pediatrics Dr. Salah Abd Rabou.
  • Eight nurses at least have tested positive for COVID-19 at Banha Teaching Hospital, where directors denied social media reports that 22 of its nursing staff have tested positive for coronavirus. Reports that “our whole nursing staff” is infected are “not true,” said the head of the therapy department, Dr. Amr al-Dakhakhny.
  • Hisham Mabrouk, a member of the Nursing Syndicate’s board said at least 600 nurses have contracted COVID-19, while 14 have died of the virus since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Two doctors and five nurses at Damanhour Chest Hospital tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday.

Coexisting with COVID-19

• Efforts to summon life back to the tourism sector are ongoing, with Head of the Supreme Antiquities Council Mostafa al-Waziri saying that museums in Hurghada and Alexandria could be inaugurated when airports open, mentioning sometime in July.
• As mid-June approaches, the date scheduled for the next phase of opening economic activities, the Social Solidarity Ministry said nurseries would not be included.
• Zoos, however, said they were raring to go.

Working with COVID-19

• In news of infections among those whose work has continued throughout Egypt’s partial lockdown:
  • A director of the Medicine Aid Fund in Beheira governorate tested positive on Tuesday.
  • A police secretary also tested positive in Beheira.
  • A worker at the Delta Spinning Factory fell ill on shift, and later tested positive for COVID-19.
  • In Marsa Matrouh, the governorate general secretary tested positive for COVID-19, joining a number of local officials across Egypt who have fallen prey to the virus.

The Authority for Real Estate Proclamation and Notarization sent a communique to its offices, announcing that 14-day paid leave would be available for employees who tested positive for COVID-19, for those who had come into contact with confirmed or suspected cases, and for those who suspect they have COVID-19.