Social media users in Egypt have shared photos and videos of the metro and trains crowded with citizens on the first day of the curfew. The main streets and roads were paralysed with traffic in the last hours before the lockdown was implemented. Citizens criticised these images for fear that this overcrowding would cause the spread of coronavirus, and they held the government responsible for its failure to prepare and set contingency plans to deal with the problem. Eighteen civilians were killed and others were injured in a traffic accident on the top of the regional road in Giza after a convoy collided with 14 parked cars in front of a police checkpoint.

Egypt imposed a curfew on all public roads at night for a period of two weeks starting from Wednesday, along with the suspension of air traffic, and the closure of schools and universities for an additional 15 days, as part of the government’s precautionary measures to confront the threat of the spread of the novel coronavirus.