Egypt hospitals near ‘critical threshold’in virus fight

CAIRO: Three months after Egypt reported its first novel coronavirus case, medical experts warn the strained healthcare system of the Arab world´s most populous nation is nearing a “critical threshold”. Hospitals have been hit by a flight of doctors abroad in recent years while the frontline staff left behind face shortages of medical supplies and protective gear that heightens the risk of infection. The North African country of more than 100 million people has declared more than 13,000 cases and over 600 deaths from COVID-19 — and daily new infections are still on the rise. The country´s 17 isolation hospitals reserved for novel coronavirus patients reached their maximum capacity at the start of the month, deputy health minister Ahmed al-Sobki told local press. Since early May, the healthcare sector has indeed been approaching the “critical threshold of its capacity,” said Ayman Sabae, a health expert at the non-government Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. In recent years, as Egypt was shaken by political turmoil, many medical professionals have moved overseas in search of better opportunities, leaving it with just one physician per 1,000 people, according to the doctor´s union. As the virus caseload has mounted, the remaining healthcare workers have born the brunt of the crisis, often at very low pay.