Egypt has launched a mobile application on Wednesday to track new coronavirus cases and those in contact with patients, the health ministry announced, as the country continues to push efforts to stem the spread of the pandemic, Ahram Online reported. The new application, launched on Google Store and iOS, aims to lower congestion on the ministry's hotlines designated for reporting coronavirus cases. The launch comes a few days after the health ministry said it had received 477,257 inquiries in March about the coronavirus pandemic through its 105 and 15335 hotlines, which have been set up to answer the public's questions about the virus. Haytham Salah El-Din, IT advisor to the minister of health and population, said the hotlines were receiving 40,000 inquiries daily, adding that the minister of health has ordered increasing the number of hotline operators to 290 and later to 400. Salah El-Din said the application would determine which isolation hospital patients would be referred to if they tested positive. The application includes a system to track reports on infections, facilitates communication between doctors and citizens, awareness articles, infographs, safe shopping instructions and answers to 50 FAQs. Egypt reported nine new deaths on Tuesday, its highest single-day toll since the first case was detected in the country on 14 February, as well as 128 new cases, bringing the total cases to 1,450 and fatalities to 94 nationwide.
