The Egyptian cabinet announced on 31 December the suspension of in-person classes in schools and universities across the Egypt for the remainder of the current semester starting Saturday, 2 January. It further announced the postponing of all in-person exams to be held in late February after the mid-year vacation. These measures come in the wake of a decision from the Ministry of Education to make class attendance optional on the 20th of December. Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly also stressed that the decision to reduce the number of employees in government bodies and ministries is to be followed strictly, and that there had been complaints about health concerns at government workplaces. These decisions all come as a part of series of government decisions to curb the rise in coronavirus cases. While anecdotal evidence suggests an exponential rise, official cases on December 31 reached 1418, and deaths linked officially with COVID-19 were at 55. This brings Egypt’s total tally of coronavirus cases to 138,062 and related deaths to 7631. Egypt’s Minister of Finance, Mohamed Maait, recently announced that the Ministry officially signed contracts to receive 20 million doses of the Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19…
Egypt Halts In-Class Education and Postpones Exams Amid Rising COVID-19 Cases
January 1, 2021
