Sixty-one doctors have died from coronavirus since the start of April, the Egyptian Medical Syndicate has announced. In a statement released on Monday, the syndicate criticised statements made by the minister of health on Saturday regarding coronavirus deaths among the country's doctors. In a press conference on Saturday, Health Minister Hala Zayed said that 115 doctors have died while working at isolation hospitals, and that other doctors who died from COVID-19 had contracted the virus through social interactions. "The number of doctors who died since the start of the coronavirus crisis so far has reached nearly 500, and not 115 doctors as the health ministry announced," the syndicate said, adding that the ministry only counts fatalities among doctors working at coronavirus isolation hospitals. "What about the doctors in the educational, private and emergency hospitals who receive thousands of patients that are potentially carrying the coronavirus? What about the obstetrics and gynaecology doctors who supervise the delivery of women carrying the coronavirus?" the syndicate's statement said. The syndicate said that the doctors with the highest mortality rates are those working in obstetrics and gynaecology. The syndicate also said that between 3 and 18 March, it sent five letters to the ministry asking for vaccinations for all doctors, but received no response. Minister Zayed said on Saturday that only 60 percent of Egyptian doctors have registered to receive the coronavirus vaccine, but only 50 percent of these registered doctors have shown up for inoculation.
