Egypt's health minister has announced that non-hospitalized coronavirus patients across the country will be monitored at home even if they were not initially diagnosed by the ministry's system.
During a press conference on Monday, Zayed said the decision was made since many coronavirus patients who display mild symptoms do not go for testing at the health ministry's laboratories, which is responsible for recording infections, and choose to have their cases monitored by private physicians.
Under the country’s coronavirus treatment protocol, patients with mild and moderate COVID-19 symptoms are treated at home to free up beds for critical cases at state-run isolation hospitals.
Zayed said these cases had previously been only contacted via phone, but the new initiative aims to guarantee that if any of the home-isolating cases deteriorate, they do not reach hospitals in critical condition.
The minister said that the registered cases of coronavirus do not represent the real numbers on the ground throughout the world.
“This always happens in situations of pandemic… the USA itself said the numbers of coronavirus infections on the ground are six to 24 time higher than the registered numbers,” she stressed.
The newly-announced initiative will be conducted gradually as of Wednesday, via the 100 Million Health initiative, an Egyptian presidential plan that began in 2018 to screen Egyptians for non-communicable and chronic diseases.
Source: Al-Ahram Online
