Egypt's ICT Minister Discusses Offering Free Internet to Students

The Egyptian Minister of Communications and Information Technology (CIT) Amr Talaat is set to hold a meeting today with heads of mobile network operators in Egypt to discuss the possibility of allowing students to have free access to some educational internet websites during the coming two weeks, especially after the President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s decision to suspend schools and universities for half a month, starting today over the outbreak of coronavirus.

During the meeting, they will also discuss the mobile operators’ measures to support the state’s comprehensive plan to address coronavirus.

It is expected that the meeting will discuss how to provide free internet services to students, to enable them to complete their studies during the period of suspension.

Egypt’s El-Sisi decided on Saturday to suspend schools, universities nationwide for two weeks over coronavirus, according to the presidency’s spokesman Bassam Rady.

The decision came during a meeting with Prime Minister Dr. Moustafa Madbouli to discuss the state’s comprehensive plan to address the outbreak of coronavirus.

The president also decided to allocate EGP 100 billion to finance the implantation of the state’s precautionary measures over the deadly-virus outbreak.

The Egyptian Prime Minister Dr. Moustafa Madbouli said on Saturday that the total of coronavirus-diagnosed cases in the country hit 110.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared on Wednesday that a new coronavirus, which is spreading around the world, a “global pandemic; however it announced the novel COVID-19 is still “controllable”.

According to the organization, the number of COVID-19 infections outside China has doubled in the past two weeks, and the number of countries hit by the epidemic has tripled.

“We are very concerned to achieve the alarming levels of the outbreak and its severity, as well as the alarming levels of inaction,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference in Geneva.

“Now, COVID-19 can be categorized as a pandemic… we have never seen a pandemic spread due to the coronavirus,” Adhanom added.