Egypt's State Minister of Media and Information Osama Heikal is self-isolating at home after coming into contact with a positive coronavirus case.
"I was put in house isolation for several days after close contact with an infected patient," the minister revealed on the ministry's official Facebook page.
No further information was revealed.
Until Wednesday, Egypt has reported a total of 49,219 coronavirus cases and 13,141 deaths.
Furthermore, the number of coronavirus patients who had now been retested for the virus and had received negative results has reached 14,566 after getting excellent treatment in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO).
Megahed revealed that Matrouh, South Sinai, the and Red Sea are the lowest governorates who have coronavirus cases, while Cairo, Giza, Qalyubia, and Fayoum governorates are the highest.
More about coronavirus
The novel coronavirus was first reported in Wuhan, China, and has infected more than one million people and killed over 234,139 worldwide. It also hit several celebrities and top political figures around the world.
The virus is a new member of the Coronaviruses group, which was never identified in humans. The viruses’ family also includes Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV), which cause illness ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases.
Coronaviruses are zoonotic, meaning they are transmitted between animals and people. Humans and animals such as mammals and birds can be affected by the disease.
The name coronavirus is derived from the Latin corona, meaning “crown” or “halo”.
On February 11, WHO announced the official name for the disease caused by the new coronavirus is Covid-19, taken from the words “corona”, “virus” and “disease”.
In December 2019, an outbreak was reported in Wuhan, China. On 31 December 2019, the outbreak was traced to a novel strain of Covid-19, which was given the interim name 2019-nCoV by the World Health Organization (WHO), it was later renamed SARS-CoV-2 by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses.
On March 11, WHO declared the virus a global pandemic as the new virus has rapidly spread to more than 800,000 people from Asia to the Middle East, Europe, and the United States.
Transmission of viruses between humans happens when someone comes into contact with an infected person’s secretions, such as droplets in a cough.
The virus can also be transmitted by coming into contact with something an infected person has touched and then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes.
It is known that older people appear to be more vulnerable to the effects of the emerging virus.
The virus caused complete paralysis in all activities and events with large gatherings worldwide due to concerns over the spread of the virus.
The pandemic also shut down the production of many TV shows, movies, music concerts, film, and music festivals, around the globe.
People across the globe partake in self-isolation for 14 days as an effective precautionary measure to protect those around them and themselves from contracting COVID-19.
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