President of Mansoura University Ashraf Abdel Baset has decided to shut down the internal medicine department in the university hospital as a precautionary measure after detecting nine coronavirus cases among patients and healthcare workers.
The university said in a Tuesday statement that a woman suffering fever was admitted to the hospital’s neurology department on 22 April. She underwent the coronavirus test and she tested positive.
The hospital then conducted several tests for the people who were in contact with the patient inside the hospital, only to find three other patients and six of medical workers have contracted coronavirus, according to media reports.
The internal medicine department includes subspecialties of neurology, infectious diseases, pulmonary diseases, and dermatology. All workers in the department have been isolated inside the building as a precautionary measure to avoid further transmission of the virus.
The university has mourned two healthcare workers of the hospital who died of Covid-19 earlier this week; Zaki Farid, a 54-year-old worker at the main building of the hospital, and Seham Mohamed Abdo, a 57-year-old worker at the Kidney and Urology Center.
The Health Ministry reported 226 new coronavirus cases and 21 deaths on Wednesday, raising the country’s total to 5,268 cases and 380 deaths. Up to 1,335 cases have recovered so far.
Health Ministry spokesperson Khaled Megahed said on Tuesday that 17 of the total Covid-19 deaths reported on Tuesday and Monday died before reaching hospitals. He added that 30% of cases died before reaching hospitals, and 20% of fatalities occurred within 48 hours after the cases were admitted in hospitals due to their deteriorated health conditions.
Mohamed Tag El-deen, presidential advisor for health affairs, said in a televised statement on Tuesday that most of the coronavirus deaths had not immediately sought medical help when they showed initial symptoms, adding that the rise in Covid-19 deaths was “normal and expected.”
Egypt’s coronavirus infections have surpassed 5,000, with 359 fatalities so far. The number of coronavirus recoveries has been more than 1,300.
