As the clock strikes nine over a corner of Heliopolis, cars and pedestrians alike begin to disappear from the streets one by one. The rushing noises and the voices of people hurrying home on the main street nearby slowly begin to fade and the barking of packs of stray dogs rises to a crescendo. But as the streets darken and the curfew enforcement begins, one light burns on. A pharmacy stands open for business 24 hours a day, seven days a week. On duty there is Mohamed Ibrahim, who works six 12-hour shifts a week from eight o’clock in the evening to 8 o’clock in the morning. He tells Egyptian Streets that he is no longer as worried about his health as he was when this all started. “It’s going to take its course,” says Ibrahim, who observes far less foot traffic and far more home delivery orders at the pharmacy these days than before the safety measures were announced. Across Egypt, pharmacists, doctors and nurses, sanitation workers, delivery drivers, and other essential workers are exempt from the curfew, but sentenced to long working hours at great personal risk to…
