More than 107,000 have been infected with the novel coronavirus since the pandemic hit Egypt in mid-February Madbouly said everyone should adhere to wearing face masks and maintaining social distancing CAIRO: Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly cautioned that tough steps would have to be taken if citizens did not adhere to anti-coronavirus health measures. During the meeting of the committee managing the coronavirus crisis, Madbouly underlined that the government may have once again to take some tough decisions which will have a negative economic impact on the very people whom the government has been trying to help. The premier said that for this reason everyone should adhere to wearing facemasks and maintaining social distancing. The premier pointed out that some countries had to resort recently to total lockdown as the numbers of COVID-19 infections had surged. He said that this meant that Egyptians should adhere to strict health measures so as to avoid similar measures. Since some citizens were not doing so, fines would be imposed on those not wearing facemasks on public transport and in government institutions, shopping malls and other crowded places. The prime minister reiterated that funds which are part of Central Bank of Egypt’s initiative will be allocated to upgrade and develop the fever hospitals and provide medical equipment. He said that President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi had directed that all such medical equipment be purchased through the unified procurement authority to control costs. Madbouly also underlined that medicines specified by the Ministry of Health as part of the treatment protocols must be available to all in hospitals or private pharmacies. During the meeting, which was held via video conference, Minister of Health Hala Zayed said that indicators confirmed a new wave of the virus in most European countries, as signs of a similar wave started to emerge in some Arab and Middle Eastern countries. She said that consequently some of these countries had to re-impose strict precautionary measures to limit the negative impacts of the second wave of the pandemic The minister also reviewed the results of Egypt’s participation in the international clinical trials. She said that there was an increasing interest in manufacturing the novel coronavirus vaccine in Egypt. She explained that this was due to Egypt’s increasing manufacturing capacity in addition to its location which qualifies it to become the vaccine-providing platform for Africa. The health minister talked about the measures implemented in hotels and resorts as part of efforts to counter the spread of the virus and described the ministry’s efforts to provide training for hotel employees on the implementation of precautionary measures, issuing health licenses for certified tourism installations and providing PCR equipment and labs in every governorate. More than 107,000 have been infected with the novel coronavirus since the pandemic hit Egypt in mid-February 2020, with more than 6,000 fatalities. More than 99,000 have recovered.