Daily COVID-19 roundup: June 14

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Here are the latest figures on COVID-19 as of Saturday, June 13:

Headline events in news on COVID-19 in Egypt over the weekend:

• An outbreak of the coronavirus at the Baqyat al-Salehat elderly care center has raised concerns over the measures in place at care facilities. Care homes for the elderly have proved particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 in several countries.
  • On Thursday, nine residents at the care facility tested positive for the virus, prompting the home’s executive director Abla al-Kahlawy to issue a statement affirming that the home’s administration had ring-fenced a floor to quarantine confirmed and suspected cases, and that they’d made multiple petitions for support and personal protective equipment to the Social Solidarity Ministry.
  • As the number of confirmed cases rose to 20 residents by Friday, the charity Ahl Misr Foundation said it would send Baqyat al-Salehat a month’s worth of PPE.
  • A medical team from the Health Ministry arrived at the home on Saturday to take over handling quarantine measures and providing medical supervision and treatment to the patients.
  • MP Faiqa Fahim sent an urgent request for the PM and the social solidarity minister to answer MPs' questions on the measures currently in place to keep elderly people in care facilities safe, as well as to account for their plans going forward.

• After a video from inside the Matareya Teaching Hospital showing a Sudanese COVID-19 patient dying in his bed took social media by storm, the director of the hospital has been fired and referred to a disciplinary investigation for negligence, according to the Health Ministry.
  • In the video, other patients on the same ward as the patient who died tell the person recording the video that the patient had passed away around dawn.
  • While sobbing, the video’s narrator said that another patient had sought medical help for the Sudanese patient but did not receive a response.

• A final year medical student named Mohamed Ashraf al-Gamal died on Saturday after contracting COVID-19 while volunteering at Khanka Hospital, which has been designated as a quarantine facility.
  • Gamal’s father said that even as his son's condition worsened, they had been unable to secure a hospital bed until an intervention from former Doctors Syndicate leader Mona Mina saw him admitted to the Nile Insurance Hospital. Gamal’s father added that his son was in need of intensive care but died before he could access the unit.
  • Obituaries for Gamal have been issued in the press and social media from the Doctors Syndicate, the board of trustees of at his alma mater, Misr University for Science and Technology, and from his colleagues, friends, and peers at the hospital and the university.

With the majority of the Health Ministry’s hospitals now dedicated to the COVID-19 response, the question of adding field hospitals to help handle patients became more pressing over the weekend.

• MPs have pushed for field hospitals to be erected immediately. MP Mohamed Abdel Ghany has questioned uncertainty and delays in going ahead with field hospitals, given that Egypt is thought to be “nearing its pandemic peak,” as he cited increased pressure on the 320 functioning isolation hospitals and the high cost of private treatment. 
• A field hospital set up by Ain Shams Specialist Hospital has been inspected by a delegation from the Environment Ministry to check its medical waste disposal standards are up to scratch. According to comments last week from the minister for higher education, the new hospital is almost ready to start taking patients.
• The scientific team at Nile University got the green light from patent owners at NASA on Saturday to produce ‘VITAL’ ventilators. They have been preparing to start production since the March outbreak of COVID-19 in Egypt.
• To prevent staff shortages at its public hospitals, Mounufiya’s Health Directorate has issued an administrative order to ban private hospitals from contracting staff employed at public hospitals in the directorate’s network, unless they first acquire official approval. 
• With more and more patients self-isolating at home, claims of shortages in medication for home-quarantiners have circulated over the weekend. The Cabinet has denied the reports, saying that 10 million packages are ready: 2 million for confirmed cases and 8 million for contacts. Elsewhere, the government said it is asking manufacturers to ramp up the production of medication to avoid potential shortages in the pharmaceutical market.

What about the non-COVID-19 patients in need of health care? Outside of the response to COVID-19, reports emerging this weekend spoke to the toll the pandemic is taking on the rest of the health system. Vaccinations for children and people in need of emergency health care were among the services running into difficulties.

• The Cabinet’s Media Center responded to complaints on social media to issue a statement denying that emergency rooms have been affected by the COVID-19 response, asserting that the departments are working and continuing to take patients.
• Parents from Cairo, Giza, and other governorates say they have been denied access to polio vaccinations at health units. The units were set up to administer the vaccine to six million children as part of a country-wide Health Ministry campaign. A parent from Shubra district told Cairo24 that the unit said it was not vaccinating children at present and turned the families away. 
• Another video on social media, which allegedly comes from a health unit in Shubra al-Kheima, Qalyubiya, shows nurses asking a mother and a child to “disinfect their hands properly” on leaving the facility, since some nurses on duty were said to be working while suspected of having COVID-19. In response to the video, the head of Shubra al-Kheima’s Health Directorate said that nurses at the unit had had COVID-19 but recovered from it over 25 days ago.

In testing news

• As Egypt’s total cases exceeded 42,000, the Health Ministry has revealed that only 300,000 PCR tests have been administered in total. Egypt is currently performing 6,000 tests per day, according to the latest information.

Coexisting with coronavirus

• New and more lenient restrictions on movement come into effect today. They include: 
  • A shorter curfew, beginning at 8 pm and ending at 4 am
  • Shops allowed to operate until 6 pm, instead of 5 pm
  • Public parks, gardens, and beaches remain closed
  • Tourism and flights are to resume gradually from July 1, starting with the governorates “least affected” by the coronavirus
  • The Cabinet is considering a gradual return to congregational prayer at mosques and churches from July 1
  • Rotational shifts are to continue in place to reduce density at state-affiliated workplaces. 
• Information Minister Osama Heikal said the measures are a “15-day extension of precautions,” adding that state institutions are ready to reopen but that the government’s waiting “for the best time.” 
• Opening mosques is a priority issue for MP Mohamed al-Ghoul, who sent a letter to the PM demanding that mosques open back up for congregational prayer, citing the fact that the government is going ahead with allowing 600,000 students to convene for exams as a justification. 

But tourism remains atop the agenda for the government, with several updates from the sector over the weekend:

• More hotels got the hygiene certificates required for reopening, with 218 hotels ready to go as of Sunday — almost 40 more hotels than reported in Wednesday’s news.
• Yet a number of hotels are abstaining from applying for the certificates until international flights are up and running again. Hotels have argued that it is not profitable to reopen with the current limits on occupancy rates (50% max), citing “highly expensive hygiene requirements” and “the lack of full enforcement of the CBE’s initiative” to give tourism facilities access to funds.
• The Tourism Ministry’s auditory department is also investigating a hotel in Hurghada for “violating hygiene requirements.” The hotel reportedly held a “group party for residents without adhering to social distancing.” 
• Tourism Minister Khaled al-Anany is courting countries to resume tourism with Egypt. After Greece and Spain came back online in May, media outlets report that Anany spoke with his Belarusian counterpart to make plans for tourists to come to Egypt.
• The Petroleum Ministry is to give discounted gasoline to private air companies, while the Civil Aviation Ministry also handed a 50 percent discount to private airlines for landing and occupancy fees for private airlines. Both discounts are effective until October 31.
• Snorkeling and diving activities in South Sinai are to resume gradually beginning July 21, according to an order from the governor.

Who cares for healthcare workers? 

Hospital workers continue to face high rates of infection and death as they treat COVID-19 patients.

• Doctor Adel Abdel Azim Shebl died of COVID-19 on Friday.
• Paramedic Khaled Mohamed Farghaly died due to COVD-19 on Saturday, marking the third death among paramedics, according to the the Egyptian Ambulance Organization.
• Pharmacist Abdel Aziz Sabry has died of COVID-19, marking the fifteen death among pharmacists, according to the Pharmacists Syndicate.
• One doctor and seven nurses tested positive over the weekend in Beheira. 

Working with COVID-19

• Housing Minister Assem al-Gazar is self-isolating at home after coming into contact with a confirmed case during a field visit to a construction project.
• There are 32 suspected cases among workers at publicly owned press organizations, the National Press Authority announced.
• Vice President of the Egyptian National Railways Authority engineer Sami Afifi is self-quarantining at home after showing COVID-19 symptoms. Afifi has not been tested himself, but all the staff at his office have been swabbed, reports Cairo24. There are at least 10 confirmed infections among the authority’s workers and employees already.