Investigation launched after four COVID-19 patients die due to lack of oxygen in Egypt

Egypt said on Sunday that it has opened an investigation
into the deaths of four COVID-19 patients due to an alleged lack of oxygen
which sparked a public outcry, AFP reported.

“The prosecutor’s office in Al-Husseiniya (in the
northern Sharqiya province) summoned the director of Al-Husseiniya hospital to
question him over the deaths of four people due to lack of oxygen,” AFP
quoted a judicial source as saying regarding the incident, without specifying
the exact date or time of the deaths.

Also read: Egypt approves use of China’s COVID-19 vaccine; in talks with AstraZeneca, Pfizer

Several social media users posted a video since Saturday,
wherein alongside several patients seen to be inside a hospital ward, a voice
is head saying, “everyone is dead in the intensive care”, with the clip further
displaying the hospital staff attempting to revive the patients.

Egypt, the largest of the countries in the Arab world, has seen
more than 140,000 cases of COVID-19 so far as well as 7,800 deaths from the
viral disease.

The cases surged late in 2020 in the country, with around 100
daily cases in October to more than 1,000 infections per day being reported
concurrently.

Also read: Rome slams Egypt decision to clear police in Italian’s murder

The real number of cases might possibly be higher than what
is quoted to be the official figure, as is acknowledged by the nation’s health
ministry, who informed that only the positive cases confirmed in their laboratories
are accounted for.