The Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population on Saturday issued a warning against going to crowded places such as shops, malls and places due to the risk of coronavirus infection.
It also advised to maintain social distancing of not less than one meter between shop goers, and stressed the utmost importance of being vaccinated.
A member of the Ministry’s Scientific Committee to Combat Coronavirus, Noha Assem, explained that vaccines protect from the most serious complications, especially in groups most vulnerable to infection.
She added that every person who receives the vaccine increases herd immunity in the country, and currently 46 percent of the world’s population has received the two doses of the vaccine, and 56 percent have received one dose.
The higher the number of vaccinated people, the greater the societal immunity, thus reducing the chances of the virus outbreak.
Assem added: “The fourth reason for the importance of receiving the vaccine at the current stage is to reduce the possibility of new mutations of the virus. The higher the rates of receiving the vaccine, the lower the chances of the emergence of new mutations in the future, and therefore receiving the vaccine has become a priority.”
For his part, the spokesperon for the Ministry of Health and Population, Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar, said that Egypt is witnessing the fifth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, and in terms of the epidemiological situation, “we have an increase in the number of infections, but it is not accompanied by an increase in hospitalization rates.”
He attributed the reason for this to the fact that the country exceeded 43 percent of the vaccination of the target groups with various vaccines, in addition to the fact that the symptoms of Omicron are less severe than other mutant ones.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
