A residential block in the village of Baja, Sohag has been placed under a 14-day quarantine as 11 new coronavirus (COVID-19) infections were found in one family, the Sohag Health Directorate revealed. In a statement on Friday, the directorate said that a team of preventive medicine experts have intensified the disinfection and sterilisation of the area after all cases were quarantined. A further 60 houses have also reportedly been quarantined in the village of Siflaq, after the death of a 68-year-old resident from the coronavirus, The latest fatality has raised the governorate's death toll to five out of 33 infections. The directorate had previously quarantined 300 houses attached to a sugar factory in Gerga, after a labourer at the factory was diagnosed with the virus. Meanwhile, the Health Ministry announced 298 new coronavirus cases and 9 new deaths on Saturday, bringing the country's total to 6,193 and 415 deaths. Up to 1,522 have recovered so far. Earlier on Friday, Mamdouh Al-Sayed, former director of the ambulance service in Sohag, died at Abo Teeg Central Hospital due to complications from the coronavirus. The Medical Syndicate also mourned the death of Cairo University's vice-dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Dr Hisham El-Saket, who died from the coronavirus on Friday. El-Saket and his wife had both been diagnosed with the virus, and were transferred to Ain Shams University's El-Obour quarantine hospital. El-Saket is the sixth doctor to die of the virus, with at least 90 doctors having been diagnosed so far, according to Dr Ehab Al-Taher, Secretary-General of the Medical Syndicate. In televised statements on MBC's El Hekaya TV show, Minister of Health Hala Zayed added that there are 81 chest and fever hospitals which are now operating as places of testing and identifying coronavirus cases. All positive cases are being transferred to quarantine hospitals. Zayed said, however, that the ministry will prepare some of these hospitals to serve also as quarantine hospitals. She revealed on Friday that the ministry is preparing 30 of the chest and fever hospitals to also serve as quarantine hospitals. The preparations, which will take place within 45 days, are part of the ministry's first stage plans as it anticipates Egypt will coexist with the coronavirus, at least for a period of time. Zayed also said that many coronavirus infections have been reported among children and infants, including two infants aged 7 and 9 months at hospitals. Zayed said that the issue is not with people going out in public, but that face masks and a commitment to personal hygiene as well as avoiding enclosed places should take place. People have to commit to precautionary measures to protect themselves and others from the infection, she added.
