Egyptians are now posting dire messages on social media seeking scarce hospital beds and money to pay for treatment. Doctors are accusing the government of negligence, blaming it for shortages of personal protective equipment and a lack of adequate safety measures. Several hundred doctors and nurses have tested positive for covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, and scores have died. The medical union has warned that Egypt’s health system could “collapse.”
“The patients are increasing in very rapid numbers,” said a 32-year-old doctor at a quarantine hospital in the southern city of Esna, where every bed was filled with coronavirus patients. “But you don’t have the capacity of beds, hospitals and staff numbers. It’s really exhausting for the staff.”
Like other doctors interviewed, he spoke on the condition of anonymity because President Abdel Fatah al-Sissi’s government has sought to muzzle criticism of its response to the pandemic.
Doctors and journalists have been arrested, according to the medical union and human rights activists. Managers at government-run hospitals have threatened to fire outspoken staff members or report them to security officials, doctors said in interviews and social media posts.
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