Egypt’s Minister of Health and Population Hala Zayed detailed during a virtual meeting of the state’s coronavirus task force her agency’s plan to manage a potential second wave of COVID-19, Egypt Independent reports.
The state’s plan reportedly comprises four elements, according to the minister. The first policy objective is to improve Egypt’s COVID-19 healthcare preparedness and expanding the country’s healthcare network, which includes 320 medical facilities equipped and authorized to treat coronavirus. As per the state’s plan, these establishments are required to increase their PCR testing and chronic disease management capacities.
Additionally, the state’s plan entails expanding the country’s reserves of medical supplies, as well as enforcing strict restrictions on arriving passengers to Egypt—who are required to submit negative PCR tests upon arrival, and setting up accessible quarantine wards at healthcare facilities. The agency’s plan also calls for the production and distribution of a vaccine.
Last June, Egypt inked a deal with British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to supply the nation’s healthcare system with a vaccine currently being developed by Oxford University.
This comes following statements by Hans Kluge, regional director for Europe at the World Health Organization (WHO), who predicted an increase in COVID-19 deaths. “It is going to get tougher. In October, November, we are going to see more mortality,” the WHO official told Agence France Presse on Monday.
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