The Egyptian Medical Syndicate said the death toll among Egyptian doctors due to the coronavirus has reached 274 after three doctors recently died of the disease. The syndicate announced the death of Hazem El-Kashef, a radiology professor at the Qasr El-Eyni Faculty of Medicine, Cairo University. It also mourned the death of Alaa Abdel-Razek, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Al-Munira General Hospital in Cairo, and Amr Abdel-Ghany, a surgeon who died in the hospital belonging to Damietta's Faculty of Medicine. The syndicate did not reveal information about their ages or the date they were admitted to hospitals. It also did not reveal whether they had suffered from any chronic diseases. Hundreds of thousands of workers in the health sector contracted the deadly virus worldwide. President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, and Egyptian officials and public figures have frequently voiced support to medical teams nationwide. After receiving the first batch of a coronavirus vaccine developed by China's Sinopharm in December, the Egyptian Health Ministry said doctors and medical staff at cancer and fever and chest hospitals will be among the highest priority groups for vaccination. As Egypt is facing a second wave of the coronavirus, Health Minister Hala Zayed said 363 hospitals are currently ready to receive patients. The vaccination campaign has not started for any groups in Egypt, including the medical teams in these hospitals or in any other places. However, El-Sisi, in a Saturday meeting with Zayed, directed the national Tahya Misr (Long Live Egypt) Fund to support the provision of the coronavirus vaccine to the highly prioritised eligible categories, a statement by the presidency said. Such prioritised groups, the statement added, are the medical staff, critical and chronic medical cases, coronavirus infected cases, as well as the elderly from the neediest categories under the umbrella of social protection programs. El-Sisi also ordered the establishment of centres to provide the vaccine nationwide and to accommodate citizens wishing to obtain the vaccine when it becomes available, the statement said. The president also instructed to obtain the best offers from international companies for the most effective vaccines, in the largest possible quantity and in the fastest possible time. So far, Egypt has reported 142,187 coronavirus cases and 7,805 deaths, according to the latest figures released by the health ministry early on Monday.
