The El Gouna Film Festival ended less than a week ago, but it seems that its influence will remain present for a long time, after its end its stars began to crumble one after the other announcing their infection with the Coronavirus, through social media, so that the audience with the same enthusiasm followed the number of consecutive infections as they did before with Pictures of the stars on the red carpet in bright clothes.

7 cases

After questioning the impact of large events and gatherings at the El Gouna Festival, and officials' denial of the presence of cases of Coronavirus among the attendees, the matter began to become more loud than concealment, as the rapper announced that he had been infected with Corona through his account on Instagram, and then followed that with an intervention via The phone is for a program on one of the Egyptian satellite channels, confirming his infection with the virus.

 Wigs added that doubts began after his return to Cairo, noting that a large number of artists returning from El Gouna were injured.

I did a corona test, and the result came out positive, unfortunately.

O Lord, he insults anyone who has / has Corona and O Lord heals everyone.

Posted by Sarrah Abdelrahman on Wednesday, November 4, 2020

As the domino game, the stones began to deteriorate, as the artist Basma, the designer of films and series clothes Reem Al-Adl, the actress Sarah Baad Al-Rahman, as well as Zainab Gharib, announced that they had been infected with Corona, in addition to the actress Nashwa Mustafa, who called for the Egyptian Ministry of Health to rescue her from the painful symptoms, but She did not clarify whether she had contracted the virus at the festival or had had contact with a returnee.

I literally die, the treatment protocol, no one needs to help me from the Ministry of Health and say I go to the hospital

Posted by Nashwa Moustafa on Wednesday, November 4, 2020

Despite the spread of some rumors about the injury of the spouses Ola Rushdie and Ahmed Daoud, the latter confirmed through his official account on Facebook, saying, "If we are not sure, then did you know where?"

This is an indication that the couple may have contracted Corona, but they are not confirmed yet.

Defend El Gouna

Despite Reem Al-Adl's infection with Corona from the El Gouna Festival - as she explained on her Facebook account, she at the same time defended the festival and indicated that there is a case monitored for it from the start, and that the festival is not responsible for events that are not officially conducted during it.

Yesterday I wrote Post announcing that I had Corona ... and I did not see it as a defect or a stain ... I am neither the first one nor the last one, you group ... ..

Posted by Reem El Adl on Thursday, November 5, 2020

But at the same time I neglected to mention the concerts that were taking place under the auspices of the festival on a daily basis in the evenings, the last of which was the post-closing ceremony hosted by the singer Amr Diab, and most of the visitors of the small city attended, and social distancing measures or wearing masks were not applied, but a very clear crowding was observed. As it appeared in the photos and videos that were shared via social media accounts.

And he returned to announce - during his telephone intervention - that everyone forgot the existence of Corona during their stay at the festival, and due to the decrease in the number of declared cases, the presumed preventive measures were not taken in the event of a widespread global epidemic such as Covid-19.

Despite the media clamor and the state of panic spreading among the returnees from El Gouna, no official response has yet been issued from the officials of the festival, at a time when businessmen Samih and Naguib Sawiris faced criticism about the insistence on holding the festival during the Corona pandemic crisis.

But Samih emphasized, in his speech during the festival's opening, that his insistence on opening it came as a result of previous film festivals such as the Venice Film Festival, and added that he accepted the challenge and considered holding the festival a success for the Egyptian state, and considered the presence of representatives from the Ministry of Health as a guarantee of safety during the festival's activities.

The festival management faces implicit accusations due to its insistence on holding it, while many similar international cinematic events have been canceled due to the epidemic, on top of which the Cannes Film Festival, which announced the films nominated to win its prizes, without any actual screening of films or the presence of events or gatherings, but rather a relinquishment of the forums The cinematography assigned to him during the festival to serve the homeless Corona patients.

View this post on Instagram

#AmrDiab performed live last night at the closing of the Fourth Edition of #ElGounaFilmFestival

A post shared by Amr Diab (@amrdiab) on Oct 31, 2020 at 4:20 am PDT

In view of the cases of infections that were announced during the past two days, these cases are not the only infections during the festival, especially since the El Gouna administration conducted PCR swabs to detect infection with the virus free of charge only for foreign guests who would leave the country, and the Egyptian attendees did not undergo the same test, which It may indicate the presence of other cases, which have not been announced yet, from those in contact with confirmed cases.

Actress Aiten Amer addressed her fellow artists - via her Facebook account - wondering why they had not announced their infection with Corona, and then returned and deleted the post minutes later.

The Severus family is completely responsible for the outbreak that occurred in El Gouna.

A very despicable need to host so many people in ...

Posted by Mohamed Mansour on Thursday, November 5, 2020

Despite this, these injuries did not affect the cultural and artistic activities in Egypt, as immediately after the El Gouna Festival, the Arab Music Festival began at the Egyptian Opera House in Cairo, and the activities of the Alexandria Film Festival for the Mediterranean countries were announced on the seventh of this month.