Coronavirus infection outbreak among doctors in Egypt

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The General Secretary of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate, Ehab al-Taher, has announced that 100 doctors have been infected with coronavirus since it began to spread to the country in mid-February, and five of them have died so far. Al-Taher said that the syndicate has informed the Ministry of Health of the names of the doctors who are infected with coronavirus on a daily basis. He pointed out that the syndicate is currently working on counting the full numbers of infected doctors, in coordination with the sub-unions in the provinces. Al-Taher accused the Ministry of Health of not protecting doctors, and leaving them to work without preventive measures.

Resident doctors at Benha University sent a distress message via Facebook, accusing the hospital administration of not conducting PCR tests on patients suspected of being infected because they are expensive. Many patients came out of isolation which exposed the entire medical staff to the infection.

The number of health care workers infected with coronavirus reached more than 13 per cent of the total number of cases, which is one of the largest percentages in the world.