Egypt Stresses Importance of Preventive Measures to Combat COVID-19

An employee wearing a protective face mask, amid concerns over the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) walks next to beds at the Ain Shams field hospital prepared to receive COVID-19 patients in Cairo, Egypt June 16, 2020. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
An employee wearing a protective face mask, amid concerns over the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) walks next to beds at the Ain Shams field hospital prepared to receive COVID-19 patients in Cairo, Egypt June 16, 2020. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
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Egypt Stresses Importance of Preventive Measures to Combat COVID-19

An employee wearing a protective face mask, amid concerns over the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) walks next to beds at the Ain Shams field hospital prepared to receive COVID-19 patients in Cairo, Egypt June 16, 2020. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
An employee wearing a protective face mask, amid concerns over the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) walks next to beds at the Ain Shams field hospital prepared to receive COVID-19 patients in Cairo, Egypt June 16, 2020. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh

Egypt on Friday stressed the importance of implementing preventative measures to reduce the risk of the spread of COVID-19, also calling on the population to get vaccinated.

The appeal came as the number of daily infections continued to rise.

The Health Ministry said Friday that 569 new coronavirus cases were detected over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of cases to 295,051.

In a statement, Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said 13 patients died from complications caused by the disease, raising the death toll to 16,921.

As many as 447 patients were discharged from hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recoveries to 248,425, he added.

Dr. Mohamed Awad Taj El-Din, adviser to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi for health affairs said people must adhere to social distancing and wearing face masks, warning that the country is being hit by a fourth wave of the coronavirus.

Taj El-Din said Egypt is taking all measures to preserve the health of the population.

In a television interview broadcast Thursday, the presidential advisor explained that Egypt has exerted all efforts to raise the efficiency of the health system to confront the pandemic.

He stressed that Egypt has allocated $191 million to secure coronavirus vaccine doses to the people and is working to secure the largest possible number of jabs.

Dr. Hossam Hosni, the head of the scientific committee to combat the coronavirus, said vaccines are considered life savers.

Health Minister Hala Zayed announced on Friday the launch of the “Let’s Calm Down Together .. Register Now” vaccination campaign in Qalyubia, Fayoum and Dakahlia to encourage citizens to register on the website and receive the jabs on the same day.

Megahed said that more than 10,000 people have so far registered on the Health Ministry's website to get the vaccine during the campaigns launched in Cairo, Giza and Alexandria on Wednesday and Thursday.



Israeli Fire Kills 30 in Gaza, Medics Say, as Attention Shifts to Iran 

Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
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Israeli Fire Kills 30 in Gaza, Medics Say, as Attention Shifts to Iran 

Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)
Palestinians carry sacks and boxes of food and humanitarian aid unloaded from a World Food Program convoy that had been heading to Gaza City, in the northern Gaza Strip, Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP)

Israeli gunfire and strikes killed at least 30 people across the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, local health authorities said, as some Palestinians there said their plight was being forgotten as attention shifted to the air war between Israel and Iran.

The deaths included the latest in near daily killings of Palestinians seeking aid in the three weeks since Israel partially lifted a total blockade on Gaza that it had imposed for almost three months.

Medics said separate airstrikes on homes in the Maghazi refugee camp and Zeitoun neighborhood in central and northern Gaza killed at least 14 people, while five others were killed in an airstrike on a tent encampment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Eleven others were killed in Israeli fire at crowds of displaced Palestinians awaiting aid trucks brought in by the United Nations along the Salahuddin road in central Gaza, medics said.

The Israel army said it was looking into the reported deaths of people waiting for food. Regarding the other strikes, it said it was "operating to dismantle Hamas military capabilities" and "feasible precautions to mitigate civilian harm."

On Tuesday, Gaza's health ministry said 397 Palestinians among those trying to get food aid had been killed and more than 3,000 wounded since aid deliveries restarted in late May.

Some in Gaza expressed concern that the latest escalations in the war between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2023 would be overlooked as the focus moved to Israel's five-day-old conflict with Iran.

"People are being slaughtered in Gaza, day and night, but attention has shifted to the Iran-Israel war. There is little news about Gaza these days," said Adel, a resident of Gaza City.

"Whoever doesn't die from Israeli bombs dies from hunger. People risk their lives every day to get food, and they also get killed and their blood smears the sacks of flour they thought they had won," he told Reuters via a chat app.

'FORGOTTEN'

Israel has been channeling much of the aid it is now allowing into Gaza through a new US- and Israeli-backed group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which operates a handful of distribution sites in areas guarded by Israeli forces.

It has said it will continue to allow aid into Gaza, home to more than 2 million people, while ensuring aid doesn't get into the hands of Hamas. Hamas denies seizing aid, saying Israel uses hunger as a weapon against the population in Gaza.

The Gaza war was triggered when Hamas-led fighters attacked Israel in October 2023, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli allies.

US ally Israel's subsequent military assault on Gaza has killed nearly 55,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza's health ministry, displaced almost all the territory's residents, and caused a severe hunger crisis.

The assault has led to accusations of genocide and war crimes, which Israel denies.

Palestinians in Gaza have been closely following Israel's air war with Iran, long a major supporter of Hamas.

"We are maybe happy to see Israel suffer from Iranian rockets, but at the end of the day, one more day in this war costs the lives of tens of innocent people," said 47-year-old Shaban Abed, a father of five from northern Gaza.

"We just hope that a comprehensive solution could be reached to end the war in Gaza, too. We are being forgotten," he said.