Egypt provides healthcare to corona-infected foreigners without discrimination

Mouaz Mohamed

In order to confront the corona virus, the Egyptian state has been trying to deal quickly with cases of infection, introducing a health quarantine to prevent the spread of the virus, while foreigners are receiving the same required health care as Egyptian nationals.

American tourist

In early March 2020, American tourist Matt Swider was transferred via military plane to quarantine Marsa Matrouh in western Egypt after he was diagnosed with the corona virus – one among 45 cases on a cruise ship traveling from Aswan to Luxor.

As soon as Swider arrived at the hospital, he posted a picture of himself on his Twitter account, commenting, “This will be my home in Egypt for the coming days until I recover from the virus.”

Chinese man

When a Chinese man named Wang was found to have the virus, he was transferred from Cairo to the same hospital as Swider in Marsa Matrouh.

According to sources at the hospital, Wang was completely isolated from the rest of the hospital. No one was allowed to enter his room or deal with him other than a doctor and specialized nurses.

For further care, the medical staff dealing with Wang have also been isolated and do not mix or deal directly with the other hospital staff.

On February 15, the Chinese tourist recovered completely, and the doctors at the hospital celebrated and shared a cake with him after his recovery. He was discharged from the hospital after confirming the negative results and spending the incubation period, in coordination with the World Health Organization.

Canadian citizen

On March 1, a second corona case was discovered in Cairo – this time a Canadian who works as an engineer for an oil company in Siwa. He was suffering from influenza-like symptoms with a high temperature. Two people took him to the hospital in Marsa Matrouh, where he tested positive for the corona virus and was isolated in a separate room.

Egypt’s Ministry of Health imposed a health quarantine on the company, transferring two of the engineer’s assistants to same hospital for a 14-day quarantine until being confirmed that they were not infected with the virus.