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Egypt Says Treatment Equipment at Isolation Hospitals are Available

A man disinfects a mosque in Cairo. DPA file photo
A man disinfects a mosque in Cairo. DPA file photo
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Egypt Says Treatment Equipment at Isolation Hospitals are Available

A man disinfects a mosque in Cairo. DPA file photo
A man disinfects a mosque in Cairo. DPA file photo

The Egyptian Health Ministry confirmed on Friday that medical teams and treatment supplies were available in isolation hospitals and other medical centers providing services for COVID-19 patients, stressing that vaccination was important to stop the spread of the pandemic.

Health Minister Hala Zayed said she advised the delivery of oxygen concentrators to patients quarantining at home as part of the ministry’s policy to provide the best level of medical services.

Zayed said the Ministry is continuing to respect all preventive measures against the coronavirus at all hospitals.

“There is a need to keep a stock of medical equipment and treatment supplies sufficient for two months in every hospital receiving COVID-19 patients,” she said.

During the past 24 hours, Egypt detected 837 coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of confirmed infections since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country to 213,798.

Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said in a statement that 41 patients died from complications caused by the disease, raising the death toll to 12,611.

Also, 439 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 161,470 so far.

The Ministry had emphasized the importance of committing to COVID-19 precautionary measures during the holy month of Ramadan by avoiding crowded areas such as stores and malls.

Alaa Eid, head of the preventive healthcare sector, urged on Thursday all residents to get vaccinated, stressing the need to reduce family gatherings, especially for the elderly and those with chronic illness.

Eid explained that two Vacsera factories will soon begin to manufacture a coronavirus vaccine and that experiments on the manufacture of the vaccine are currently underway.

“In October 2020, Egypt’s Minister of Health Hala Zayed began communicating with the Chinese Health Ministry about producing the vaccine,” he said.

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Palestinians Receptive to Lebanon’s Call to Limit Possession of Weapons in Refugee Camps

The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee meets at the government headquarters. (Dialogue committee)
The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee meets at the government headquarters. (Dialogue committee)
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Palestinians Receptive to Lebanon’s Call to Limit Possession of Weapons in Refugee Camps

The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee meets at the government headquarters. (Dialogue committee)
The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee meets at the government headquarters. (Dialogue committee)

Lebanon has started to exert serious efforts to restrict the possession of weapons inside Palestinian refugee camps in the country in line with President Joseph Aoun’s inaugural speech.

The president had demanded that the possession of weapons in the country and the camps be limited to the state.

The Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee met at the government headquarters in Beirut three days ago to discuss the issue.

All Palestinian factions attended the meeting, and the gatherers agreed to “completely” resolve the Palestinian possession of arms outside the camps. They also agreed to outline how to restrict weapons inside the camps in line with the president’s speech.

The Lebanese state has yet to come up with the mechanism to confiscate the weapons inside the camps.

A Lebanese security source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the arms will be tackled through a political approach drawn up by the government. “It will be carried out by the army with the security agencies and in coordination with the Palestinian factions in the camp, led by the Fatah movement, which is the official representative of the Palestinian people,” it added.

The Palestinians have expressed their “complete understanding” of the issue, it remarked.

The laying down of weapons by Palestinian factions is a step towards all illegal weapons throughout the country being turned over to the Lebanese state, it went on to say.

“There are no longer any excuses for weapons to remain in possession of any organization,” stressed the source.

Lebanese groups will be demanded to lay down their arms after the Palestinian ones do, it added.

In a first, the Palestinian factions have been very receptive to a Lebanese head of state’s demand to cooperate in limiting the possession of weapons in the refugee camps.

Member of the Palestinian National and Central Councils Haitham Zaiter said that the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) recognizes that the camps are part of Lebanese territories, so they come under the authority of the state and its laws.

He told Asharq Al-Awsat that “complete coordination” is ongoing between the Lebanese security agencies and PLO inside the camps where several wanted Lebanese and Palestinian suspects and others from other nationalities have been turned over to the authorities.

The suspects had sought refuge in the camps to avoid justice in the crimes they have committed, he acknowledged.

“The PLO is the sole representative of the Palestinian people inside Palestine and in the diaspora,” he stated.

Moreover, Zaiter explained that Palestinian weapons in Lebanon are either carried by the Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine – General Command (PFLP-GC) outside the camps or by non-partisan individuals inside the camps.

The PFLP-GC laid down its weapons as soon as the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad collapsed in December.

Heavy weapons inside the camps had been previously brought in with the aim to undermine the PLO, he added.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas “has constantly called for coordination with Lebanese authorities to limit the possession of these weapons,” Zaiter said.