Egypt Ratchets Up Restrictions in Stations, Schools, Mosques

Second from the left Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly during a meeting (photo courtesy of the cabinet official Facebook page)
Second from the left Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly during a meeting (photo courtesy of the cabinet official Facebook page)
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Egypt Ratchets Up Restrictions in Stations, Schools, Mosques

Second from the left Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly during a meeting (photo courtesy of the cabinet official Facebook page)
Second from the left Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly during a meeting (photo courtesy of the cabinet official Facebook page)

Egypt has tightened anti-virus restrictions in stations, schools, and mosques and threatened to punish violators.

Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly affirmed the necessity of adhering to the precautionary measures against the novel coronavirus, warning that the second wave of the pandemic is harder than the previous one.

During a virtual cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Madbouly stressed that all concerned bodies should apply all these measures strictly at all work and production sites amid the rise in infection rates witnessed these days. He ordered tightening campaigns on places that violate the precautionary measures, and impose penalties stipulated in the law and in the cabinet’s decisions in this regard.

Moreover, the minister called for reducing crowding at public workplaces, giving governmental entities and ministries discretion and flexibility to determine, upon work conditions, the needed number of employees.

Egyptian National Railways emphasized that passengers can’t access stations without facemasks.

In an effort to prevent the spread of the virus among school students, Education Minister Tarek Shawki ordered teachers and students to follow strict precautionary measures, including the wearing of facemasks throughout the school day.

The Health Ministry said in a statement that 275 new coronavirus cases were detected, upping the total number of confirmed cases in Egypt since the beginning of the outbreak to 111,284.

The Ministry said 16 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 6,481. Meanwhile, the number of recovered cases reached 101,288 so far.



UN Begins Polio Vaccination in Gaza, as Fighting Rages

 Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
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UN Begins Polio Vaccination in Gaza, as Fighting Rages

 Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)

The United Nations, in collaboration with Palestinian health authorities, began to vaccinate 640,000 children in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, with Israel and Hamas agreeing to brief pauses in their 11-month war to allow the campaign to go ahead.

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed last month that a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.

The campaign began on Sunday in areas of central Gaza, and will move to other areas in coming days. Fighting will pause for at least eight hours on three consecutive days.

The WHO said the pauses will likely need to extend to a fourth day and the first round of vaccinations will take just under two weeks.

'Complex’ campaign

"This is the first few hours of the first phase of a massive campaign, one of the most complex in the world," said Juliette Touma, communications director of UNRWA, the UN Palestinian refugee agency.

"Today is test time for parties to the conflict to respect these area pauses to allow the UNRWA teams and other medical workers to reach children with these very precious two drops. It’s a race against time," Touma told Reuters.

Israel and Hamas, who have so far failed to conclude a deal that would end the war, said they would cooperate to allow the campaign to succeed.

WHO officials say at least 90% of the children need to be vaccinated twice with four weeks between doses for the campaign to succeed, but it faces huge challenges in Gaza, which has been largely destroyed by the war.

"Children continue to be exposed, it knows no borders, checkpoints or lines of fighting. Every child must be vaccinated in Gaza and Israel to curb the risks of this vicious disease spreading," said Touma.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to battle Hamas-led fighters in several areas across the Palestinian enclave. Residents said Israeli army troops blew up several houses in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, while tanks continued to operate in the northern Gaza City suburb of Zeitoun.

On Sunday, Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were apparently killed not long before Israeli troops reached them, the military said.

The war was triggered after Hamas fighters on Oct. 7 stormed into southern Israel killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages by Israeli tallies.

Since then, at least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 injured in Gaza, the enclave's health ministry says.