The crisis between Egypt’s top medical union and health ministry continued as the impact of the coronavirus increased in the country. Doctors are demanding better protection and measures that ensures their safety and treatment should they contract the virus.
Egypt’s health ministry, on the other hand, claims that it is committed to protecting doctors and providing health and psychological assistance to health workers.
While the union says that COVID-19 killed 19 doctors, the health ministry says only 11 had died.
Secretary General of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate Ihab al Taher, in a press statement on Tuesday, reiterated the union’s demands for offering quick testing for doctors treating COVID-19 patients and providing them with proper assistance.
In response, Health Minister Hala Zayed said that since the start of the outbreak, the ministry had "ensured the allocation of a floor in every quarantine hospital with a 20-bed capacity to treat those infected among medical staff".
“Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Egypt, 291 medical workers have been infected with the respiratory disease, including 69 doctors,” she said.
“Since the spread of the virus, the ministry has made 19,578 tests for all the medical workers,” she noted.
The union's warning came two days after the death of a 31-year-old doctor, Walid Yehya, who was unable to get a bed at a quarantine hospital in Cairo.
Zayed has reportedly ordered an investigation into Yehya’s death and promised to take "all legal measures in case of any shortcomings".
