Egypt's health ministry announced 126 new coronavirus cases and 13 new fatalities on Sunday, bringing the total number of infections to 2,065 so far and the number of deaths to 159. The newly detected cases are all Egyptians, except for one foreigner, the health ministry said.
Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said in a statement that 21 Egyptians have fully recovered from the virus and left isolation hospital on Sunday.
He noted that the number of people who have retested negative so far has reached 589, of whom 447 have fully recovered and left isolation hospital.
Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed held a meeting on Sunday, via video conference, with the administrative and medical staff of six isolation hospitals: Negela, Baltim, Kafr El-Zayat, Tama El-Amid, Mallawi and Qaha.
Egypt has allocated 94 hospitals across the country to deal with the coronavirus virus. They include 12 isolation hospitals and 82 fever and pulmonology hospitals, which will carry out triage and referral of coronavirus patients.
According to the Sunday statement, the minister ensured during the meeting the availability of strategic necessities for medical staff, such as single-use protective suits, gloves, and face masks.
She responded to their requests to provide high-speed internet to facilitate their mission and also gave directives to accommodate their other needs and act immediately on any challenges that they may face, in recognition of their exceptional efforts.
She called on the mental health team to be continually present in the isolation hospitals to provide the staff with active psychological support.
The health ministry has previously trained 150 mental health specialists to provide psychological support to health care workers, patients and members of the public.
The minister also instructed the Preventive Measures Follow-up Committee to appoint a representative to be continually present at those hospitals.
The committee was formed to enhance the protection of medical staff at isolation hospitals and was tasked with supervising the infection control measures.
