Egypt reported a 55 percent drop in coronavirus infections and a 20 percent decrease in related deaths this week on the week before, acting Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar stated on Wednesday.
During an online meeting of health ministry officials, Abdel-Ghaffar was apprised that Covid_19 cases hospitalization rates fell nationwide by 60 percent in the last week of July, compared to the third week of the same month.
Between 19 and 27 July, Egypt recorded a daily average of 177 coronavirus infections and a total of 12 deaths, the health ministry had earlier reported.
During the meeting, Abdel-Ghaffar said up to 75 percent of the coronavirus cases admitted to isolation hospitals in June and July were unvaccinated.
The minister appealed to citizens to receive the booster doses to maintain public health, the statement added.
Until late July, Egypt fully vaccinated more than 38 million people, and administered booster shots to six million people.
The drop comes nearly a month after a surge in Covid_19 cases in Egypt, especially during the vacation of Eid Al-Adha, from 9 to 16 July.
In early July, the Ministry of Health reported an increase of 6.9 percent in coronavirus infections following a long period of a major decline in infection tolls nationwide.
Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar, spokesperson for the health ministry, attributed the rise in infections to the emergence of some sub-variants of the Omicron strain of the virus, especially the BA.5 variants, which he said are “more transmissible, but do not cause severe infections.”
Source: Al-Ahram Online
