El-Sissi appeals to Egyptians to help stem spread

In his first speech to the nation on the global pandemic, Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el Sissi appealed to Egyptians to help stem the spread of the novel coronavirus.

He urged Egyptians to stay at home and ensure they undertook social distancing measures among others to protect themselves and others against the virus.

“In the next two weeks we want more commitment, more responsibility, more discipline, Please help us, Egyptians, to get over the next two weeks without more increases in the number of infected people. We do not want to reach numbers greater than this because this virus is rapidly spreading and the numbers can turn into thousands within a few days,” el Sissi appealed.

He warned that the number of people infected could be in the thousands within days, if people did not take the virus seriously.

He said his government have taken “simple measures” including the closure of schools and universities, a nightly curfew on shops, restaurants and other businesses in efforts to minimize interaction.

“And with regard to shops we reduced opening times. All these measures are to minimize interaction between people. We have a population of 100 million and we should take things very seriously,” he added.

Thanking doctors and health workers, el-Sissi said, “This is a war and you are the heroes.”

Here a few pics of #Cairo taken today from Omar Alrzzaz – the Ataba pic was originally from a poplar news outlet (they apparently don’t care much for credibility) So people got the message, which is what counts. #Egypt fights #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/TqciF0nkgN

— Karina Loren (@miskelayla) March 22, 2020

Egypt’s military in a statement said a senior officer, Major General Khaled Shaltout died on Sunday following his infection from the coronavirus.

Shaltout was infected while participating in sterilization activity by the military across the country.