General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has announced an increase in the medical profession allowance by 75 per cent for all health care workers in Egypt, and an exceptional reward from the Long Live Egypt Fund for workers in isolation, fever, chest hospitals and central laboratories, as well as the creation of a risk fund for health care workers. Under this amendment, the allowance for doctors will increase from EGP 700 ($44) to about EGP 1,200 ($76), and for nurses from EGP 400 ($25) to EGP 700 ($44). However, the actual increase will range from EGP 250 ($16) to EGP 400 ($25) after the various financial deductions are made. Many doctors have denounced this meager increase on their social media pages, confirming that it is not enough for efforts they are making and the risks they are exposed to.

Dr. Ehab Al-Taher, Secretary General of the Medical Syndicate, said: “If this increase is part of a package of other procedures that includes a real increase in the infection allowance, it will be good, but if it is the state’s only estimate of the doctors’ efforts, it [is not].” The Medical Syndicate issued an official statement confirming that the new increase is not commensurate with the efforts and sacrifices made by the doctors, and demanded that the president and the parliament quickly issue a law to approve a fair infection allowance commensurate with the effort and danger to which doctors are exposed. Salaries for doctors in Egypt are the lowest in the world. The infection allowance is only EGP 19 ($1),
which is one of the reasons for the increase in resignations from government hospitals.