Egypt hospitals near ‘critical threshold’ in virus fight

In this file photo from April 19, an Egyptian doctor checks a patient's lung X-ray at the infectious diseases unit of the Imbaba hospital in the capital Cairo. AFP/File/Ahmed HASANThree 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”.

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. To get by, Ibrahim works two jobs, also doing shifts in the private sector for a further 4,000 pounds per month.A picture taken by a doctor at a Cairo hospital shows radiology technicians posing for a picture in a lab in the isolation ward for COVID-19 patients. AFP/File/Yahya DIWER

She said they are often denied the so-called polymerase chain reaction genetic tests and instead offered cheaper and less effective rapid diagnostic tests. One million tests had been carried out by early May, of which 105,000 were PCR, according to Mohamed Awad Tageddine, health advisor to President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.

But it eased the restrictions in recent weeks, hearted by what is considered a relatively low infection rate in the youthful country where 60 percent of people are below 30.

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