COVID-19 cases decrease significantly in Egypt: Health ministry

COVID-19 cases decrease significantly in Egypt: Health ministry

Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population announced on Sunday that since April, cases of Covid-19 in Egypt began to decrease significantly, reaching the lowest rates compared to previous years and that there have been no deaths since the last recorded case on 16 March 2023 until now.

Hossam Abdel Ghaffar, the official spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population, explained that all the currently circulating mutants belong to the mutated Omicron and do not cause severe disease.

Abdel Ghaffar indicated that since the World Health Organization declared the end of the health emergency for COVID-19 on 5 May 2023, the virus has become endemic in all countries of the world and is treated like other acute respiratory diseases. He added that the current dominant mutant in the world is the Omicron mutant, which is rapidly spreading, but it is less severe and less dangerous than other mutants.

He also explained that the WHO is currently monitoring several variants of the Covid-19 virus, including 3 variants classified as interesting (XBB.1.16, XBB.1.5, EG.5), and six other variants classified as under surveillance.

Abdel Ghaffar said that globally, XBB.1.16 remains the most prevalent variant, reported from a total of 101 countries since its emergence and its prevalence