Coronavirus: Egypt orders inquiry into doctor's death as separate wards opened for medics

Officials say 291 healthcare workers have contracted Covid-19 and 11 of those have died

A Egyptian doctor wearing two protective masks checks a patient's lung X-ray at the infectious diseases unit of the Imbaba hospital in the capital Cairo in April. AFP

Faced with signs of discontent by healthcare workers battling the coronavirus, Egypt’s government has decided to designate a separate floor in quarantine hospitals across the country for members of the medical profession. It has also assured them it had adequate supplies of protective clothes and equipment.

Health Minister Hala Zayed on Monday said 291 healthcare workers, including 69 doctors, have contracted Covid-19 since the outbreak of the coronavirus in February. Eleven have succumbed to the disease, she said.

Her comments followed the death on Sunday of a young doctor whose colleagues maintain he could have been saved had he been tested early. Mrs Zayed has ordered an inquiry into his death. According to a pro-government Cairo daily newspaper, President Abdel Fatah El Sisi has been personally following up the case.

But in broader terms, the minister’s comments have apparently come in response to the discontent of some healthcare workers over the conditions under which they treat the Covid-19 patients as the pandemic grips the Arab nation of 100 million.

Some doctors have taken to social media to air their grievances about what they claim to be inadequate supplies of protective clothing and equipment and a slow response to testing members of the profession who show symptoms of the disease. The government rejects these charges as baseless and contends that adequate supplies are available.

In what appears to be an organized campaign, some pro-government social media users have blamed supporters of the now-banned Muslim Brotherhood among doctors for the criticism over the authorities’ handling of the pandemic, saying their aim was to discredit the government. Others accused doctors who quit their government jobs to protest the death of their colleagues as “traitors.”

The battle to contain the virus while protecting health workers is not limited to the most populous Arab nation, but a challenge many countries have faced around the world because of the unprecedented nature of the pandemic.

Doctors and other Egyptian health workers have seen their terms of employment vastly improved since the outbreak of the coronavirus, with the government significantly raising their salaries and professional hazard allowances to meet some of their longtime demands. Mr El Sisi has repeatedly paid lavish tribute to healthcare workers since the pandemic took hold.

In televised comments last week, he appealed to Egyptians to more diligently observe preventive measures such as social-distancing and hygienic practices to reduce the workload of health workers.

Mr El Sisi, a career army soldier who became president in 2014, has also adopted the phrase “the white army” coined by the media to refer to healthcare workers. He ordered that streets in new cities under construction – more than a dozen across the country – be named after healthcare victims of Covid-19.

Addressing Egyptians last week, Mr El Sisi said: “Please, we have tried from the start of the crisis not to scare you … we used gentle terms to inform you of the issue so as not to frighten you. Please take more care for the sake of all of us.

“The more we are diligent, the more we lighten the burden on medical crews. Not doing so increases their workload.”

The number of daily infections reported by the health ministry has jumped to average 700-plus for the past week. The infection number climbed to 17,967 as of Monday night, while the death toll hit 783. Nearly 5,000 of those infected have recovered after treatment.

These figures are relatively low in a country of Egypt’s size. The government, in its defence, maintains that the pandemic has been dealt with “professionally and scientifically” and repeatedly assured the population that it was prepared to handle a much larger number of victims if need be.

Critics say the numbers are low because not enough random testing was being done. While commending the government’s handling of the pandemic, the World Health Organisation has on several occasions counselled Egypt to carry out more tests.

On Monday, the health minister said there will be 20 beds on each hospital floor assigned to healthcare workers. She also dismissed criticism of the ministry’s efforts to protect medical staff, saying 19,578 regular tests and 8,913 PCR tests had been carried out among the medical staff, which conforms to the gold standard for identifying Covid-19.

She listed a series of figures purporting to show that hospitals have adequate supplies of protective clothes and equipment for health workers. She also said that psychological support for health workers has been made available.

Cairo's daily El Youm El Sabeaa, which is known to be close to the government, said Mr El Sisi was personally following the case of Dr Waleed Yahya Abdel Haleem, the young doctor who died of Covid-19, and that it was the Egyptian leader who instructed the health minister to order the investigation into his death.

Doctors and other healthcare workers in Egypt have long complained of low wages and poor working conditions. The health sector suffers from decades of negligence and mismanagement that are largely to blame for an exodus over the years of doctors seeking better pay and conditions abroad. Of the country’s 220,000 registered doctors, at least 120,000 are known to be working abroad.