Cairo- The number of infected people announced by the Egyptian authorities continued to rise after approaching two thousand cases per day, amid a government recognition of the widespread spread of the mutated “Omicron” strain of the Corona virus in the country.
And the Egyptian Ministry of Health announced the registration of 1,910 new infections with the virus and 29 deaths in the past 24 hours, an increase of more than 100 cases over the previous day, which witnessed the registration of 1,809 infections and 35 deaths.
The official spokesman for the ministry, Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, stated, in a statement, that the total number of people infected with the virus is 415,468, while the total deaths amounted to 224,60, indicating that 1,870 people recovered from infection with the Corona virus were discharged from hospitals, bringing the total of those recovered to 349,427. person until today.
The officially announced numbers began to accelerate in the second half of this January, and approached the barrier of 1,000 infections per day, starting from January 14, knowing that Egypt has always aroused controversy since the outbreak of the virus due to the questioning of official numbers and the belief of activists and local and international bodies that it less than reality.
confrontational decisions
In light of the widespread outbreak of the virus in the Egyptian capital (Cairo), the Egyptian Ministry of Health issued urgent instructions to hospitals in Cairo, indicating that the occupancy rate of intensive care beds in most cities of the governorate has risen to more than 70%.
In a letter quoted by Egyptian newspapers, the ministry warned all its hospitals in the Cairo governorate to postpone all non-emergency interventions that do not affect patients and do not cause complications, for a period of two weeks.
The hospitals also demanded to increase the number of beds in the internal department and specialized intensive care beds for Corona patients to 50% of the total number of beds as a minimum, with the possibility of increasing the percentage according to the number of cases, as well as taking the necessary measures such as quickly restarting several hospitals as isolation hospitals with their full capacity.
The ministry drew attention to stressing the availability of all medicines and supplies, intensifying committees to follow up on the implementation of treatment protocols, reviewing all maintenance and urgent repair work for oxygen networks, and reviewing maintenance and urgent repair work for medical devices, especially intensive care devices and CT scans.
There is no home without an injured person
Despite the announced large increase, the figures announced by the Egyptian Ministry of Health are met with constant skepticism from international institutions, which indicated in more than one report the inaccuracy of government figures regarding the numbers of infections and deaths resulting from the Corona virus.
What supports this skepticism is what Hossam Hosni, head of the Scientific Committee to Combat Corona – the highest government authority responsible for dealing with the Corona virus – announced last Monday, that there is no house in Egypt without a person infected with the Corona virus, and this practically means much higher numbers than what the Ministry of Health announces. In light of Egypt’s population exceeding 100 million citizens.
Hosni’s statements came in a telephone interview with the “Hazrat Al-Citizen” program, which is broadcast on the “Al-Hadath Al-Youm” satellite channel, in which he said that the epidemiological situation of the Corona virus in Egypt is similar to what is happening globally.
In his intervention, the head of the Corona Control Committee stressed the importance of not underestimating the Corona virus and dividing it into “Corona” and “Omicron” or underestimating mild symptoms, warning that the Ministry of Health is still monitoring cases infected with the “Delta” mutant inside the country.