500 Egyptian doctors died from their infection with the Coronavirus, a shocking number that was capable of renewing the dispute between the Doctors Syndicate that announced the number, and the Ministry of Health, which insists on much lower numbers.

Which angered the doctors.

The outbreak of the Coronavirus exacerbated the differences between the Ministry and the Syndicate, which usually erupted over traditional issues such as doctors ’wages and working conditions, so the virus came to cause - among its many effects - a new inflammation of the relationship between the two sides.

Since the emergence of the virus in Egypt, the most prominent dispute between the Ministry and the Syndicate has focused on the validity of the data, as the Syndicate insists that health data is inaccurate, and that it is trying to reduce the impact of the disaster, especially with regard to the working conditions of doctors in their hospitals and the rates of their injuries and deaths.

Today, Monday, the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights called on the state authorities to declare mourning for the lives of doctors who died as a result of infection with the Covid-19 virus, coinciding with the arrival of 500 doctors and doctors, according to the Doctors Syndicate data.

The initiative said, "Egypt has lost 500 defenders of our lives and health on the front line against a global pandemic that has lasted for more than a year and we are currently suffering from its most severe waves."

During the past months, the Doctors Syndicate issued several statements in which it touched on the health situation and the problems that doctors suffer due to the Corona pandemic, and criticized the “Ministry of Health's disregard for their demands in an incomprehensible and unjustified manner,” including the demand to facilitate doctors' access to vaccines against the Coronavirus.

The relationship between the Ministry of Health and the government in general, and the Physicians' Syndicate, witnessed unprecedented tension when doctors rose up at their union headquarters in February 2016 to protest police violations against colleagues while performing their work in hospitals, and from that date the relationship witnessed a fluctuation between improvement and deterioration, and the Prime Minister tried Mostafa Madbouly extended bridges of communication with the Syndicate last year, so he received the President of the Doctors Syndicate, Hussein Khairy, in his office, declaring keenness to solve doctors' problems.

The number of doctors in Egypt is 188,000, but only 800,000 doses of vaccines are available, according to official data.

Tweeters criticized the position of the Ministry of Health, as others defended it, and some of them questioned the logic of the numbers announced by the Syndicate, and some of them said that the difference in the number of deaths resulted from the different method of calculation.

The Ministry only counts those who died of the virus in isolation hospitals, but the Syndicate counts everyone who dies with the virus anywhere.

The Minister of Health, # Hala_Zayed, denies the number of doctors martyrs during Corona with negative statements despite the fact that support is required


during the two days that have passed. The Minister of Health made a strange statement about the deaths of doctors due to Corona, the statement in which she said that only 115 doctors died in Corona while working and the rest were community injuries.


1 pic.twitter.com/wpbk4Jw1o2

- ー メ メ ド ー AHMED (@ darkman82j_) April 29, 2021

No. It is not correct .. 500 da means 28 thousand doctors visited by Corona, then 1.8% of them die, which are 500 .. an exaggerated number

- Insomniac man (@ocislu) May 3, 2021

The doctors ’indignation added to the fact that Health Minister Hala Zayed ignored thanking the Doctors Syndicate during a press conference she held the week before last, in which she thanked all medical unions for their efforts, with the exception of the Doctors Syndicate.

Doctors say that the Syndicate has expected from the Minister more than gratitude, that she “participates in the moral and financial support of doctors and families of martyrs, and that the minister submits a request to the Council of Ministers to include all martyrs in the Martyrs' Honor Fund established by Law No. 16 of 2018, and not an attempt to exclude most families of martyrs Of the compensation and the legal rights assigned to them. "

The Egyptian Minister of Health thanks the nursing, dental and physical therapy unions for their role in confronting # Corona, and


did not mention any effective role for the Doctors Syndicate,


why ??


A question frequently asked in the medical community

- Dr. Mustafa Gawish (@drmgaweesh) April 25, 2021

The number of correspondences of the Doctors Syndicate to the Ministry of Health in the recent period from the beginning of last March to the current April 18 has reached 5 correspondence, including requests for doctors to improve their conditions and take care of them while performing their work without any response or response, according to the statements of the members of the Syndicate Council.

The conflict between the ministry and the union was not limited to issues related to doctors alone, as prominent members of the union criticized the government in general for its policies regarding the measures that should be taken to stop the spread of the virus.

The former Undersecretary of the Doctors Syndicate, Mona Mina, said that the government's reluctance, amid the death rate we see, to take any precautionary measures, and to be content with some appeals to citizens

Incomprehensible and very dangerous behavior.

"It is also very important for the Ministry of Health to start an accurate and real count of the numbers of injured and deaths. Everyone knows that these announced numbers are not related to the real numbers," she added.

Tweeters from doctors and others criticized the Ministry of Health's treatment of doctors, even though they are on the lines of fire in the face of the virus, while Twitter users saw that it is better to coordinate between the ministry and the union to find out the truth.

The Egyptian Doctors Syndicate denies the government an official statement: The union does not depend in its approach on intimidation or excitement, the number of our doctors martyrs since the beginning of the pandemic has approached (500) martyrs and not (115) as announced by the Ministry of Health!


The question: What drives the government to lie about the numbers of doctors ’victims and belittle the efforts of the doctors ?!

- Jamal Sultan (@ GamalSultan1) April 26, 2021

If you think about the search for the first spread of the corona, about the infected numbers in Egypt, and people have come out, they said, the Ministry of Health published a research shortly after that about the numbers, and it was almost the same if it was in community institutions or journalists other than the Doctors Syndicate with us, the time of the situation would be different if people checked the rate of increase Deaths

- Ahmed ali (@AhmedElhawaty_) April 27, 2021

Doctors Syndicate: 500 doctors, God passed away with corona,


Minister of Health: 150 doctors only


The 350 doctors and team doctors who died, if you please, stop clowning and be sober, take care of your children and your families because the Minister does not recognize your death

- Human ~ Homo (@homoo_sapiens) April 26, 2021

The Doctors Syndicate is a nightmare for Sisi and his government, the statements of the members of the union and the real statements they make expose the lies, deceit and constant anesthesia of the Ministry of Health to the people that there are preparations and contingency plans for surprise and the truth is that it is a ministry of deception and humiliation.

- Tarek Abass (@ TarekAb34294550) April 26, 2021

One of the manifestations of the beginnings of the crisis between the union and the ministry last year was the union’s embarrassment to the ministry, which confirmed the existence of sufficient intensive care beds for Corona patients, in response to the union’s denial of the existence of the sufficient number. The ministry does.

The recent deteriorating epidemiological situation in Sohag Governorate (to the south) represented a new round of conflict between the two sides, as the statements of members of the Medical Syndicates confirmed an abnormal increase in the number of injuries in the governorate, as revealed by the citizens' calls for the lack of vacant places for their relatives of Corona patients in the governorate hospitals.

On the other hand, the data of the Ministry of Health and the statements of its officials came to mitigate the impact of the tragedy, and confirm the presence of dozens of intensive care beds and ventilators vacant and ready to receive Corona patients in hospitals in Sohag Governorate.

The Minister of Health denounced the union’s statements, and asked - in a press conference the week before - about the sources from which the Syndicate draws its information, and confirmed that “had the situation been as bad as that the union’s data depicted, the citizens would reveal it.”

Meanwhile, the calls of the people in the governorates of Sohag and Qena (southern Egypt) filled social networking sites.