EGYPT-Egypt’s Ministry of Health has declared an updated version of the COVID-19 treatment protocol in efforts to curb the pandemic.
The seventh version of COVID-19 guidelines allows isolation hospitals to start treatment with new medicines as long as the drugs are dispensed free of charge.
The Health Ministry issued the new treatment protocol where the drug “molnopiravir” was introduced as well as the expansion of “monoclonal” and “mirage” drugs since the new drugs have a powerful effect in the treatment and recovery of COVID-19.
The Egyptian protocol keeps pace with global developments and the state introduced new medicines that contribute to raising the recovery rates for the infected as well as reducing complications for minor and moderate cases.
Head of the Scientific Committee to Combat Corona in the Ministry of Health and Population, Hossam Hosni said that the total imported vaccines for “AstraZeneca”, “Sinovac”, “Sinopharma”, “Johnson & Johnson”, “Sputnik”, “Pfizer Piontech” and “Moderna” amounted to 136, 024,630 doses.
“The drug “Paxlovid” produced by the “Pfizer” company has obtained emergency use approval from the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Medicines Authority,” affirmed Hossam Hosni.
It comes at a time when Egypt has signed a contract with the producing company to obtain sufficient doses to treat 20,000 people in the coming weeks
Despite the new developments, Egypt has been fighting the fourth coronavirus wave for months amid a rapid surge in coronavirus cases.
The ministry continues to take necessary preventive measures against any viruses or infectious diseases as well as making the Health Egypt application available on phones.
For instance, the Egyptian government has announced cutting prices of the coronavirus PCR and antigen rapid tests for citizens and foreigners in fight against the outbreak.
The PCR tests for Egyptians will be EGP 650(US$41.31) instead of EGP 900(US$57.20) while a PCR test for foreigners will cost EGP 750(US$47.66) instead of EGP 1,200(US$76.26).
On the other hand, antigen rapid tests for Egyptians and foreigners will be EGP 175(US$11.12) and EGP 225(US$14.30) respectively instead of EGP 250(US$15.89) and EGP 320(US$20.34).
Presidential Adviser for Health Affairs Dr Mohamed Awad Tag El-Din affirmed that the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine should not be the same kind as the previous two.
“The third dose is more preventive than the first two and the vaccines have contributed to limiting the outbreak of the pandemic. Moreover, the current COVID vaccines are safe for pregnant and breastfeeding women,” Dr Mohamed Awad assured Egyptians.
A total of 37,425,628 Egyptian citizens have received their first Covid-19 dose of the vaccine while other 26,360,054 million have received the second dose all around the country.
In addition, 622,204 citizens have received the third dose of vaccine against coronavirus.
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