Egypt Prepares COVID-19 Testing Centers at Airports

A man receives a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine against the coronavirus disease in Cairo (Reuters)
A man receives a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine against the coronavirus disease in Cairo (Reuters)
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Egypt Prepares COVID-19 Testing Centers at Airports

A man receives a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine against the coronavirus disease in Cairo (Reuters)
A man receives a dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine against the coronavirus disease in Cairo (Reuters)

Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism established coronavirus PCR testing centers in some Egyptian airports near touristic cities.

Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Khaled El-Anani said that all residents of South Sinai and the Red Sea will be vaccinated by the end of June, noting that all workers in the tourism sectors in those governorates received their jabs.

The Minister added that inoculation of tourism workers has started in Cairo, Giza, Luxor, and Aswan, stressing that coronavirus test centers have been established in some Egyptian airports.

Tourists will be able to take their PCR test upon arrival, at a reduced price, in addition to the possibility of conducting antibody tests upon request before departing for their countries.

Anani expects a boom in the rates of Russian and Ukrainian tourists to South Sinai and Red Sea governorates, noting that there is a noticeable turnout during the current period of tourists from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Belarus.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly stressed that the government will exert all efforts to support the tourism sector while maintaining the precautionary and preventive measures that will be adopted internationally to restore the safe tourism movement during the pandemic.

Madbouly was speaking Friday on the sidelines of the inauguration of the first forum of heads of African investment agencies in Sharm El-Sheikh.

The Health Ministry said 755 new coronavirus cases were detected on Thursday, raising the total number of confirmed cases since the outbreak in the country began to 271,047, including 199,285 recoveries and 15,510 deaths.

Egypt has until now received 5.6 million doses of AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, and Sinovac vaccines.



Israeli Airstrikes Kill at Least 30 Palestinians in Gaza, Medics Say

A body arrives at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah town, central Gaza Strip, 31 October 2024. (EPA)
A body arrives at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah town, central Gaza Strip, 31 October 2024. (EPA)
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Israeli Airstrikes Kill at Least 30 Palestinians in Gaza, Medics Say

A body arrives at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah town, central Gaza Strip, 31 October 2024. (EPA)
A body arrives at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir al-Balah town, central Gaza Strip, 31 October 2024. (EPA)

Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip have killed at least 30 Palestinians since Monday night, Palestinian media and medics said on Tuesday, as the Israeli army tightened its siege on northern areas of the enclave.

An airstrike damaged two houses in the town of Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, where the army has carried out new operations since Oct. 5, and killed at least 20 people late on Monday, the Palestinian official news agency WAFA and Hamas media said.

The Gaza health ministry did not immediately confirm the toll. Four other people were killed in the central Gazan town of Al-Zawayda around midnight on Monday, medics said.

Palestinian health officials said six people had also been killed in two separate Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City and Deir Al-Balah in the central area of the narrow enclave.

The Israeli military said, without giving details, that its forces had "eliminated terrorists" in the central Gaza Strip and Jabalia area. Israeli troops had also located weapons and explosives over the past day in the southern Rafah area, where "terrorist infrastructure sites" had been eliminated, it said.

Palestinians said the new attacks and Israeli orders for people to evacuate were aimed at emptying two northern Gaza towns and a refugee camp to create buffer zones.

Israel says its forces have killed hundreds of Palestinian gunmen and dismantled military infrastructure in Jabalia in the past month.

More than 43,300 Palestinians have been killed in more than a year of war in Gaza, the authorities in Gaza say, and much of the territory has been reduced to ruins.

The war began after Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.