El-Sissi regime under fire as health system fails in Egypt’s fight against COVID-19

THE Egyptian health care system is failing to cope with the COVID-19 outbreak, and the government has been negligent because it is not taking necessary measures, both its health care workers and a leading medical association said. Egypt has recorded 18,756 total coronavirus cases, and its death toll has increased to 797, according to the Worldometer website, which has been updating information on the COVID-19 in each country. Yet, Egyptian health workers claim that the number of tests made to detect the virus is insufficient as the government has conducted only 135,000 so far in a country with a population of more than 100 million.

BRITISH Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s public support has suffered the sharpest fall for a Conservative party leader in a decade following the Dominic Cummings scandal, according to an opinion poll published yesterday.

As the prime minister prepares to be quizzed by senior members of Parliament later Wednesday over his handling of the coronavirus crisis and the scandal, a YouGov poll for The Times newspaper showed the Conservative lead over the main opposition Labour party has been cut by nine points in a week. The survey put the Tories on 44%, down four points, and Labour on 38%, up five points over the past seven days.

The last Tory leader to see his lead fall by the same amount was David Cameron during the 2010 general election campaign. A poll in the Daily Mail newspaper showed Johnson’s approval rating had plummeted from 19% to minus 1% in just a few days, despite leading his party to a comprehensive general election victory just six months ago.

It adds to a sense of growing revolt over the government’s handling of Cummings, with nearly 40 Tory members of Parliament demanding he lose his job, while one minister has quit in protest.

Cummings drove his wife and young son on a 264-mile (425-kilometer) trip from London to Durham, northeast England, in late March during the height of the coronavirus crisis. He later admitted taking a 60-mile round trip to a local beauty spot, to test his eyesight.

Britain is one of the worst-hit countries by the pandemic, with more than 46,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19 by mid-May, according to official statistics released Tuesday. Johnson’s government, whose less comprehensive tally is updated daily, has counted 37,048 fatalities.