Reports of injuries among health workers in Egypt have highlighted the extent of adherence to the rules of social separation and infection control, with an increasing number of new cases of coronavirus in Egypt and the world.
The director of the National Cancer Institute in Egypt, Hatem Abu Al-Qasim, announced on Friday that 15 new cases of Corona virus had been discovered from the institute’s medical staff.
Abu al-Qasim added that the injured are 12 nurses and three doctors, noting that the institute will be closed and patients will not be received, in addition to conducting a comprehensive survey of the patients inside it.
The General Union of Doctors said in a statement on its official page on Facebook that the injured were transferred to the isolation hospital after they were confirmed to have the virus.
On social media, institute staff complained of not following the protective health rules to avoid infection.
During the past weeks, doctors and nurses have spoken of the Ministry not providing adequate protection to them during their work.
And a number of workers in the field expressed their concern about the ability of the public health system to deal with the increasing cases in countries with a population of 100 million people, where population density can increase the spread of infection.
An anesthesiologist at the National Cancer Institute named Mohsen Shafiq wrote a post on Facebook on Friday, which was published before the disease was discovered at the institute.
I am writing this talk, and I know all its consequences and bear its consequences, and I have spoken enough for the period that has passed in the groups of the Oncology Institute’s representatives and …
Posted by Armia Mohsen Shafeek on Friday, April 3, 2020
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In his publication, the doctor wrote that other health institutions have taken “professional” measures, commensurate with the size of their capabilities, to reduce all opportunities for infection to spread.
These steps consisted of “closing clinics, reducing work capacity to 30 percent, creating a complete team to fight and diagnose the virus, dividing doctors interchangeably to prevent overcrowding and mixing, and creating ad hoc and ad hoc isolation sites, and only treating emergencies only to reduce pressure on medical resources from human resources or consumers that we may need later in Face the epidemic. “
At the National Cancer Institute, the doctor said, there was a “refusal” to tighten the procedures due to the “special nature of the institute” and the inability to close the service in the face of emergency situations “even though it is actually done on holidays and occasions.”
He said that officials did not agree to temporarily close the institute despite the danger of transmitting the disease to people with tumors, which means that it will eliminate them of course.
After weeks, it was agreed to “reduce the number of operations, prevent relatives from entering clinics, and reduce the number of cases, but most of the decisions were not implemented or partially implemented, and some were only on paper.”
He added: “After that, a member of nursing began to appear inside the institute, and he continued to come to the institute (for a period of) days, and he is infected, and we do not know, so he transferred the infection to patients, doctors and nurses.”
He continued that he was refused to take smears from all contacts and then there were cases of nursing members and doctors and began “doctors smears come positive” which means that we “have turned to the tool to transmit infection to each other and patients and their families and our families in the homes.”
Some circulated a pamphlet of a female medical staff member at the institute called Reem Ahmed, saying that a nurse had had a positive condition in a private hospital that did not adhere to the isolation and practiced his work in the institute, which transmitted the infection to others.
Another doctor says that she is a deputy at the institute, who wrote in a post on Saturday morning on Facebook that she does not rule out the occurrence of other injuries in the institute, and his administration called for intervention:
The 10 cases of Corona discovered today in Cairo Governorate
All of them are from the National Cancer Institute
Other than the cases they discovered before …Posted by Fatimah Mamdouh on Friday, April 3, 2020
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Hajar Essam, a pharmacist at the institute, also wrote in the Saturday post that she has been calling for some time since the institute’s administration to close it completely and cleanse it:
Okay, my group, but for clarification, I mean, I have been with me for a week or more, my colleagues and I and the pharmacy department in that what happens is wrong and this …
Posted by Hagar Essam Ashmawy on Friday, April 3, 2020
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A few days ago, the Ministry of Health announced that a doctor had died of the virus after spending about 12 days in house isolation.
After his transfer to the hospital in a critical condition, due to the complications of “Covid-19”, Dr. Ahmed Al-Louwah, 57, of the University of Al-Azhar University, Doctor of Medicine, spent 57 years.
The infection was transmitted to the doctor after contacting an Indian patient, according to local media.
For his part, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi decided to raise the value of the infection allowance for health sector workers.
A few days ago, the government ordered manufacturers to direct medical protective equipment to public hospitals, and announced additional financing of one billion Egyptian pounds ($ 64 million) for public health services.
Currently, officials say they are able to contain the virus through tests, tracking, isolation and treatment, as well as general health isolation measures that include night curfews, the closure of mosques, schools and tourist sites.
But some complain that a large number of citizens do not adhere to the issue of social estrangement, and pictures circulated on the Internet appear crowding citizens in public places, especially trains and transport stations.
In the latest statistics, the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population announced on Friday that it had registered 120 new cases of Covid-19 disease, caused by the virus.
The total number of cases in the country as of Friday reached 985, including 216 recovered cases and 66 deaths, according to the ministry.
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