The death toll among Egyptian pilgrims rose to 43 Saturday, Egyptian hajj delegation head Mohamed al-Attar said, after 13 other pilgrims passed away since Thursday evening.
He added all of them were buried in Saudi Arabia after receiving approval from their families.
The delegation had earlier said in a statement that the Egyptian hajj pilgrims were generally in good health, and that there had not been any epidemics, infections or other health hazards among them.
However, an Al-Masry Al-Youm correspondent in Saudi Arabia reported Saturday that Egyptian pilgrims were crammed inside the Egyptian Hajj camp, barely sleeping on top of each other. The correspondent added that some pilgrims caught viral pneumonia, which threatened the transmission of the virus to others.
The pilgrims called on supervisors to provide masks to avoid infections. According to Al-Masry Al-Youm, the Health Ministry failed to provide full health care in light of the lack of required medicines and the small number of doctors compared to the the increased demand for medical examination.
The number of deaths among the Egyptian hajj delegation had previously stood at 20, after four pilgrims died doing the Nafrah earlier this week.
