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Egypt Updates Hospital Databases to Speed up Transportation of COVID-19 Patients

PM Madbouly chairs a cabinet meeting. (Official Facebook page)
PM Madbouly chairs a cabinet meeting. (Official Facebook page)
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Egypt Updates Hospital Databases to Speed up Transportation of COVID-19 Patients

PM Madbouly chairs a cabinet meeting. (Official Facebook page)
PM Madbouly chairs a cabinet meeting. (Official Facebook page)

In an effort to accelerate the medical response to coronavirus cases in Egypt, the government announced it was updating and creating a link of databases of vacant beds in higher education hospitals to the Health Ministry’s database.

The government hopes that once the information is made available to the ministry and ambulance services, this would facilitate and speed up the transportation of patients and critical cases to healthcare facilities depending on vacancies.

Public hospitals in Egypt are run by the Health Ministry, while the Ministry of Higher Education separately handles higher education hospitals.

On Monday, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly inaugurated Egypt’s first field hospital at Ain Shams University in Cairo.

During a government meeting with the Ministers of Health and Education, Madbouly stressed on Tuesday the need to provide various medical supplies and medicines to all hospitals.

He also emphasized the need for daily coordination on the coronavirus outbreak between the Ministries of Health and Higher Education, as well as the head of the Egyptian Consolidated Purchase and Medical Supply Committee, and the head of the Egyptian Medicines Authority.

The PM ordered the two ministers to fully coordinate to facilitate the provision of intensive care rooms and ventilators for the critical cases. He further affirmed the importance of activating the hotlines that provide service to citizens.

Government spokesman Nader Saad announced that the meeting also stressed the importance of expanding follow-up services for chronic and non-communicable diseases in Health Ministry hospitals and university hospitals.

Saad announced that the PM stressed the need for vehicles that will follow up on medical conditions, dispense drugs for patients and provide check-ups for medical staff.

Meanwhile, the Interior Ministry announced that all drivers of public transportations must wear masks to reduce the spread of the coronavirus and preserve public health.

The Ministry said in a statement that about 3,877 public drivers were arrested for not wearing masks.

Egypt has made it compulsory to wear face masks in public places, transportation, and facilities as part of health measures to “coexist” with COVID-19, with violators facing a fine of about $246.

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UN Investigative Team Says Syria’s New Authorities ‘Very Receptive’ to Probe of Assad War Crimes

A man looks at the pictures of missing people, believed to be prisoners from Sednaya prison, which was known as a "slaughterhouse" under Syria's Bashar al-Assad's rule, after his ousting, in Marjeh Square also known as Martyrs Square in Damascus, Syria December 22, 2024. (Reuters)
A man looks at the pictures of missing people, believed to be prisoners from Sednaya prison, which was known as a "slaughterhouse" under Syria's Bashar al-Assad's rule, after his ousting, in Marjeh Square also known as Martyrs Square in Damascus, Syria December 22, 2024. (Reuters)
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UN Investigative Team Says Syria’s New Authorities ‘Very Receptive’ to Probe of Assad War Crimes

A man looks at the pictures of missing people, believed to be prisoners from Sednaya prison, which was known as a "slaughterhouse" under Syria's Bashar al-Assad's rule, after his ousting, in Marjeh Square also known as Martyrs Square in Damascus, Syria December 22, 2024. (Reuters)
A man looks at the pictures of missing people, believed to be prisoners from Sednaya prison, which was known as a "slaughterhouse" under Syria's Bashar al-Assad's rule, after his ousting, in Marjeh Square also known as Martyrs Square in Damascus, Syria December 22, 2024. (Reuters)

The UN organization assisting in investigating the most serious crimes in Syria said Monday the country’s new authorities were “very receptive” to its request for cooperation during a just-concluded visit to Damascus, and it is preparing to deploy.

The visit led by Robert Petit, head of the International, Impartial and Independent Mechanism for Syria, was the first since the organization was established by the UN General Assembly in 2016. It was created to assist in evidence-gathering and prosecution of individuals responsible for possible war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide since Syria’s civil war began in 2011.

Petit highlighted the urgency of preserving documents and other evidence before it is lost.

Since the opposition overthrow of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad and the opening of prisons and detention facilities there have been rising demands from Syrians for the prosecution of those responsible for atrocities and killings while he was in power.

“The fall of the Assad rule is a significant opportunity for us to fulfill our mandate on the ground,” Petit said. “Time is running out. There is a small window of opportunity to secure these sites and the material they hold.”

UN associate spokesperson Stephane Tremblay said Monday the investigative team “is preparing for an operational deployment as early as possible and as soon as it is authorized to conduct activities on Syrian soil.”

The spokesperson for the organization, known as the IIIM, who was on the trip with Petit, went further, telling The Associated Press: “We are preparing to deploy on the expectation that we will get authorization.”

“The representatives from the caretaker authorities were very receptive to our request for cooperation and are aware of the scale of the task ahead,” the spokesperson said, speaking on condition of not being named. “They emphasized that they will need expertise to help safeguard the newly accessible documentation.”

The IIIM did not disclose which officials in the new government it met with or the site that Petit visited afterward.

“Even at one facility,” Petit said, “the mountains of government documentation reveal the chilling efficiency of systemizing the regime’s atrocity crimes.”

He said that a collective effort by Syrians, civil society organizations and international partners will be needed, as a priority, “to preserve evidence of the crimes committed, avoid duplication, and ensure that all victims are inclusively represented in the pursuit of justice.”

In June 2023, the 193-member General Assembly also established an Independent Institution of Missing Persons in the Syrian Arab Republic to clarify the fate and whereabouts of more than 130,000 people missing as a result of the conflict.