Cairo -

At a time when many countries of the world are suffering from the rapidly spreading Corona virus “Delta”, no statements by government officials in Egypt indicated the presence of the new mutation inside the country, and over the past weeks, official directives were limited to adherence to precautionary measures in anticipation of the start of the fourth wave of the epidemic. next September.

This government reassurance that the country is free of the new mutant was met, yesterday, Monday, by shocking statements made by the Minister of Health, Hala Zayed, announcing the monitoring of “Delta Plus” cases last month.

She explained, during a press conference, that the Ministry of Health monitored the first case of the delta mutant in mid-July, while the number of infections continued in recent weeks.

The Adviser to the President of the Republic for Health Affairs, Muhammad Awad Taj El-Din, had confirmed on more than one occasion this month that the delta mutator had not appeared in Egypt.

The Minister of Health confirmed that "Delta" has not been scientifically proven to be the fiercest among the Corona mutant, adding that all vaccines are able to confront it and that there is no need for anxiety and tension.

And the Regional Director of the World Health Organization in the Eastern Mediterranean, Ahmed Al-Mandhari, said that the delta mutant is very fast spreading, and causes an infection that is twice the infection caused by the original strain of the virus.

And he said, in a televised statement last week, that there are 142 countries that have reported the emergence of the new strain of the "delta mutated" corona, including two-thirds of the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region.

criticism

And one day before the Minister of Health announced the spread of the new mutant inside the country, the head of the Health Committee in the House of Representatives, Ashraf Hatem, criticized the way the government managed the file of precautionary measures to confront the epidemic, pointing to the strictness and leniency in the application of procedures according to social class.

He said in a telephone interview with the program "Hadrat Al-Citizen" broadcast on "Al-Hadath Al-Youm" that the state allows the organization of parties in coastal areas, especially the northern coast - a tourist area - in return for closing toilets in mosques.

He denounced: "The state closes the toilets in mosques, so how does it allow parties on the northern coast?"

And he demanded that the government be held accountable in light of the noticeable increase in cases of corona, noting that cases were monitored looking for beds in hospitals.

Concealment is a crime

The statements of the Minister of Health regarding the spread of the epidemiological mutator received great interaction on social media platforms, and the comments ranged between warning of the virus and the need to return to adhere to precautionary measures, and criticism of concealing the news of the discovery of infected cases, considering concealing the epidemic as a crime.

Wasn't it necessary to inform the people so that they could receive the mutated virus with you?


Concealing the epidemic is the crime of crimes.. be honest with the people, put them in front of their responsibilities, and then take preventive measures.

pic.twitter.com/EFkyVVtNqJ

— Ammar Ali Hassan (@ammaralihassan) August 23, 2021

Egypt is currently similar to the Soviet Union 40 years ago, for example, at the time of Chernol, the whole world says in a disaster, and they say, No, this is a gas leak, and this is a case of Covid. http://t.co/tKbTaV5NFw

— Abdullah Sam.

(@ElJarahpro) August 23, 2021

A delta mutant of the Corona virus appeared in Egypt in mid-July, and in celebration of it, resorts, tourist resorts and public beaches were opened wide, concerts and singing were held without any precautionary measures, and gardens, parks and markets were crowded with citizens?

The result is a rise in injuries and the start of wave 4

— ali elgamal (@alielgamal100) August 23, 2021

We want to vaccinate children from Corona because the Delta mutator is working on them, and most of the Corona patients in America are teenagers, and they are hospitalized because of it, and it is starting to appear in Egypt

We want to vaccinate children, O government.

— ＣＨＥＲＲＹ🌸 (@Tonacherr_Nour1) August 23, 2021

The mutated "Delta" of the Corona virus arrived in Egypt with a thousand safety, and the Ministry of Health detected the first case infected with it, and by the time most of us began to abandon our caution against infection with the Corona virus in the first place...

— zeyad (@el_atar_zeyad) August 23, 2021

Vaccine license

In conjunction with the announcement of the spread of the Delta mutant, the Egyptian Medicines Authority announced the granting of an emergency use license for the locally produced Sinovac-Vaxera vaccine.

The authority confirmed, through a press statement issued yesterday, Monday, that the vaccine has passed the necessary evaluation processes by the authority, in accordance with the global rules and references used to assess the safety, quality and effectiveness of vaccines.

The Ministry of Health announced the production of 15 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine, with the first million doses to be supplied to vaccination centers in all governorates as of Tuesday.

It is expected that the monthly production capacity of the locally produced vaccine will reach between 15 and 18.5 million doses.

In the past days, the Ministry of Health recorded an accelerated increase in the number of daily infections with the Corona virus, as government hospitals recorded yesterday, Monday, 189 cases of Corona virus, exceeding 5 times the infections recorded at the end of last July.

The total number of people infected with the epidemic is 286,541, including 236,075 cases of recovery, and 16,676 deaths.

About 10 million Egyptian citizens registered their data through the website of the Ministry of Health in order to obtain the vaccine, while 7.5 million citizens obtained the vaccine, according to official statements.