Supervisor Elham AbolFateh
Editor in Chief Mohamed Wadie

Egyptian University Dormitories Receive Stranded Nationals from Abroad


Mon 11 May 2020 | 12:01 PM
Ibrahim Eldeeb

A number of stranded Egyptians returning from different countries around the world have quarantined in many university dormitories, which were designated as a health isolation hospitals for 14 days.

The Cairo University, Ain Shams University and Helwan University's presidents Muhammad Osman Al-Khosht, Dr. Mahmoud Al-Matini, Dr. Majed Najm, respectively, have welcomed the stranded nationals inside the dormitories.

It is noteworthy that Dr. Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, has previously announced the ministry's plan to allocate some university dormitories and hospitals to serve as isolation hospitals for the coronavirus confirmed patients.

Abdel Ghaffar added that the number of beds available at university hospitals selected for isolating infections hits 2,056 beds, 297 intensive care beds, and 266 ventilators at university hospitals selected for isolating infections.

Abdel Ghaffar added that dormitories have also been set aside for taking in isolating coronavirus patients. These include 38,589 rooms with 69,070 beds, with selected dormitories for the first phase in Cairo, Alexandria, Ain Shams, Mansoura, Assiut, Minya, and Helwan universities.

Egypt registered on Saturday 488 new coronavirus cases, upping the total number of confirmed cases to 8,964.

“Eleven more deaths were confirmed; raising the total number to 514,” Khaled Megahed, the Health Ministry’s spokesman, said in a statement.

“Up to 2,002 coronavirus patients have recovered so far,” the spokesman said.

“As many as 57 Egyptians were among the recovered patients today,” he added.

Also, the number of coronavirus patients who had now been retested for the virus and had received negative results has reached 2,476 after getting excellent treatment in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO).

Megahed revealed that there are governorates which witnessed a decline in the number of daily infections in the last two weeks like Port Said, South Sinai, Damietta, and the Red Sea.

Earlier, Dr. John Jabbour, the WHO representative, noted that Egypt seriously dealt with the novel coronavirus since the start of its outbreak.

In Egypt, 85% of the positive cases had recovered without treatment because their symptoms were simple, he said.

According to him, Egypt faces many challenges, topped by coordinating among all the health-related sectors and making the best use of the state’s revenues in the fight against the epidemic, in addition to addressing the social stigma associated with the disease and supporting the medical staff who are standing in the frontlines and risking their own lives to treat infected patients.

The WHO official urged all the people to follow protective measures and stay at home to protect themselves and their loved ones against the disease.

The ministry has stepped up precautionary measures in the affected governorates and intensified campaigns to spread awareness about infectious diseases.

Megahed stressed that the ministry announced all positive and suspected cases nationwide.

The ministry raises its preparedness at all the country’s ports and airports to monitor the virus developments, receiving inquiries from citizens about the virus through its hotline 105 or 15335.