Egypt's health minister has announced that non-hospitalised coronavirus patients across the country will be monitored at home even if they were initially diagnosed by the ministry's system. During a press conference on Monday, Zayed said the decision was made since many coronavirus patients who display mild symptoms do not go for testing at the health ministry's laboratories, which is responsible for recording infections, and choose to have their cases monitored by private physicians. Under the country's coronavirus treatment protocol, patients with mild and moderate COVID-19 symptons are treated at home to free up beds for critical cases at state-run isolation hospitals. Zayed said these cases had previously been only contacted via phone, but the new initiative aims to guarantee that if any of the home-isolating cases deteriorate, they do not reach hospitals in critical condition. The minister said that the registered cases of coronavirus do not represent the real numbers on the ground throughout the world. “This always happens in situations of pandemic… the USA itself said the numbers of coronavirus infections on the ground are six to 24 time higher than the registered numbers,” she stressed. The newly-announced initiative will be conducted gradually as of Wednesday, via the 100 Million Health initiative, an Egyptian presidential plan that began in 2018 to screen Egyptians for non-communicable diseases. According to Zayed, the 100 Million Health initiative staff will follow up on the condition of all home-isolating coronavirus patients in all neighbourhoods nationwide and measure their oxygen saturation level, which is negatively affected by COVID-19. Patients who are susceptible to deterioration will be given a pulse oximeter device so they can measure the level of oxygen in their blood themselves periodically. If their readings record a rate lower than 90 percent, they will be transferred to hospital. The initiative will cover 100 percent of non-hospitalised cases within two weeks, the minister said. Zayed added that the daily coronavirus infections toll recorded in Egypt has continued to decline for the fourth day in a row, with 1,277 new people testing positive for the virus on Monday. The daily infection toll has been on a downward curve since this weekend, with 1,409 infections recorded on Friday, 1,407 on Saturday, and 1,309 on Sunday. Since the last week of December, the country has been facing a second wave of the virus, with daily tolls above the 1,000-case threshold. On Thursday, the country recorded the biggest-one day rise in almost five months, with 1,418 cases.
