Oh God, I Seek Refuge in You from Coronavirus, Op-ed

Many happy returns to the Egyptian families as the new academic year is kicking off. May God protect Egypt, maintain its security and preserve Egyptians’ health.

The president warned on Thursday of the second wave of Coronavirus and asked people to be cautious against the dreaded pandemic.

The pandemic is sweeping world for the second time in a fiercer wave with terrifying numbers. Fortunately, the Egyptian government has taken strict measures since the first days of its outbreak, when the president decided to allocate EGP 100 billion to confront the disaster.

This huge budget revealed a depth of vision on the seriousness of this pandemic. We all know about the compensations allocated to seasonal employment, pensions, isolation, emergency, and lockdowns as all these measures were taken by the government of Dr. Mustafa Madbouly, hence, we were the first to impose these decisive measures and the last to ease them!

But now ... with the second wave of Coronavirus, the number of cases is significantly increasing to imaginary numbers. The number of cases in U.S. is near 9 million while the deaths reached 300 thousand. In India, the number of cases reached 8 million including 113 thousand deaths.

The rate of cases and deaths is increasing significantly in the other European countries, even in Russia, which announced registering Coronavirus vaccine as the country’s total number of cases reached 1.5 million while deaths reached 25 thousand.

The alarming numbers around us should be a warning bell give up the state of carelessness. Although the government and all the authorities have not eased the precautionary measures, while President El-Sisi and all officials are wearing masks during conferences, ceremonial events and meetings, but people in streets are neglecting these measures.

Banks and hospitals were exempted. However, the precautionary measures are not respected in the shops, transportation, commercial malls, and in some workplaces as their workers seem if they have not heard about the dreaded pandemic!

I hear about the possibilities of the second wave, and read about scenarios stating that the epidemic will last until the end of 2021, infecting no less than 70% of the world's population, especially with the emergence of "free symptoms" cases.

So, I warn of two scenarios: First: we should have the ability to confront this pandemic depending on the lockdown measures while the people should commit to these measures. As for the second scenario: most of people must adhere to the precautionary measures and bear the responsibility .. We should be cautious so as not to be exposed to the disaster that European countries and America are experiencing.

With the start of the school year, I hope that everyone be cautious and commit to be precautionary measures in schools and class rooms.

We must commit to the measures seriously until we overcome this difficult stage, to save our lives and the lives of our beloved ones. Oh God, I seek refuge in You from Coronavirus.