Registration begins THE MINISTRY of Health announced on Friday last week that online registration for the Covid-19 vaccination will start this week on the ministry's website. Following the vaccination of all medical teams, priority will be given to the elderly and people with chronic diseases. Vaccinations are still underway in chest and fever hospitals for healthcare workers nationwide. Medical staff at 22 isolation hospitals have already been vaccinated. The vaccination campaign was launched on 24 January. Imported vaccines are vigorously tested by the Egyptian Drug Authority before usage, official sources at the Health Ministry stated, adding that no preference will be given to one vaccine in particular. Egypt is currently using the Chinese vaccine Sinopharm. The UK AstraZeneca vaccine that has been recently authorised will soon be added to the list of available vaccines. Egypt will also receive doses of Russia's Sputnik-V that has a reported 92 per cent efficacy rate.
Medical teams coined EGYPT will produce 15 million new coins bearing the slogan “Egyptian medical teams”, Minister of Finance Mohamed Maait announced last Thursday. The move is to honour members of the medical staff for their role in fighting Covid-19 and saving the lives of thousands of citizens. In a cabinet meeting, the minister stated that the Public Treasury and Mint Authority will produce 10 million pieces of the LE1 coin and five million pieces of the PT50 coin. By issuing such coins, the ministry aims to document the “noble role of medical staff members in the memory of the nation”, according to Maait.
Correspondent released EGYPTIAN correspondent of the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera news satellite channel Mahmoud Hussein was freed on Saturday after more than four years in detention. In a Facebook post, Hussein's daughter Al-Zahraa said on Saturday afternoon that her father had returned home. The decision to free Hussein came in accordance with a recent criminal court ruling that ordered his conditional release. By means of the ruling, Hussein will have to report to a nearby police station twice a week. Hussein was detained at Cairo Airport in December 2016 when he arrived on a family vacation from Doha. He faced charges of publishing false news, belonging to a banned group and receiving foreign funds. Since the ouster of Egyptian Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, Egyptian-Qatari relations have been tense, with accusations targeting the Egyptian regime and charges of supporting terrorist groups being levelled at Qatar. The political rift between the two countries led Egypt to cut its diplomatic and economic ties with Qatar in 2017. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates adopted the same stance against Qatar, accusing it of seeking closer ties to Iran. In January 2021, Egypt and the three Gulf countries signed Al-Ula agreement for Arab reconciliation, ending their four-year dispute with Qatar.
Rulings upheld THE CASSATION Court on Saturday upheld all previous jail terms passed against defendants in the Ramses train crash that killed 31 people and left 17 injured in February 2019. In June 2019, the prosecution's office referred 14 suspects in the case to urgent trial, accusing them of manslaughter and gross negligence and called for imposing the maximum penalty against them. In March 2020, Cairo Criminal Court sentenced the train driver, the chief suspect in the case, to 15 years in prison and fined him LE8.8 million. The Cassation Court also upheld 10-year jail terms for four defendants and seven-year imprisonment sentences against five others. Another defendant was sentenced to 10 years in prison plus an additional three years for using drugs. Prison terms ranging from two to five years against three other defendants were also sustained. In February 2019, a blaze broke out at Ramses railway station following the crash of a train moving at high speed into the station's concrete barrier at the end of the line.
Mansour appeal rejected THE ADMINISTRATIVE Court on Sunday turned down an appeal filed by former chairman of Zamalek Sporting Club Mortada Mansour in which he contested a ministerial decree suspending him from his post. In the court ruling, the decree passed by Minister of Youth and Sports Ashraf Sobhi to freeze the club's board of directors and assign a temporary committee to run the club will remain in effect. Mansour decided to appeal this week's ruling before a higher court. The Higher Administrative Court will start hearing Mansour's appeal on 1 March. In late November, the Sports Ministry decided to freeze Mansour's board, saying in a statement that the decision was based on the findings of a financial and administrative inspection committee. The statement confirmed financial and administrative irregularities that prompted the ministry to refer the report to the prosecution.
*A version of this article appears in print in the 11 February , 2021 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly
