Egyptian citizens wearing masks. File photo: Reuters
In TV remarks, Tag El-Din said Egypt has experienced six coronavirus waves, the last of which was “extremely week” in the severity of infection and the number of people infected.
“Hospital admissions have been rare and deaths have been almost zero” during the sixth wave, Tag El-Din said.
Except for an increase of 6.9 percent in coronavirus infections recorded in late June/early July, Egypt has been witnessing a major decline in infections and deaths nationwide in recent months.
At the end of the first week of September, Minister of Health Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar said coronavirus cases and deaths in the country decreased by 33 percent and 40 percent respectively week-on-week.
Egypt seeks to fully vaccinate 50 million of its 102-plus population as per the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) recommendations, Abdel-Ghaffar said in a Cabinet meeting.
He added that the number of those who received their first vaccine shot has already surpassed the target population, while 78.7 percent of the target population has received the second shot.
As for the third booster shot, around 8.4 million people have been inoculated so far, nearly 33.4 percent of the country’s target priority groups, which the health ministry estimates at 25 million people, Abdel-Ghaffar said.
In recent months, the country has eased the coronavirus-related restrictions it had imposed since March 2020. This includes allowing mosques and shrines nationwide to return to normal operation hours after two years of limited services.
It also included allowing weddings and celebrations at indoor halls in hotels as long as they follow precautionary measures.
In 16 June, Egypt announced that it is lifting COVID-related entry restrictions for all travellers, whether Egyptian nationals or foreigners, according to a statement by the Cabinet.
Aside from the coronavirus, Egypt recorded and isolated its first monkeypox case in a citizen coming from Spain earlier in September, making Egypt one of dozens of countries that have reported monkeypox cases, although the disease is not endemic there.
Monkeypox has infected tens of thousands of people worldwide recently, after it had been primarily found in parts of Central and West Africa.
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