
New COVID variant not detected in Egypt: Health official - Health
'All surveillance methods have confirmed that the virus has not entered Egypt,' said Hossam Hosni, head of the Health Ministry's Scientific Committee to Combat Coronavirus, in a televised interview on Al-Nahar TV Monday evening.
Hosni described the variant as highly contagious due to its ability to evade immunity from previous infections or vaccinations. 'This variant has been able to develop itself and challenge the immunity acquired through previous infections or vaccinations,' he said.
While the symptoms resemble those of a severe cold—fever, body aches, weakness, sore throat, red eyes, and some gastrointestinal effects—Hosni stressed that cases linked to the variant are generally not fatal.
He noted that treatment continues to rely on standard medications. Antibiotics and antivirals are typically reserved for high-risk groups, including the elderly, immunocompromised individuals, and patients with chronic illnesses.
The variant has been linked to a summer resurgence of COVID-19 cases in several countries, including China and the United States.
In May, the WHO designated NB.1.8.1 as a 'variant under monitoring' and assessed its additional public health risk as low.
COVID-19 caused significant disruption in Egypt in 2020 and 2021 before subsiding in 2022. The WHO ended its pandemic emergency designation in May 2023, shifting global focus toward managing COVID-19 alongside other respiratory viruses.
Egypt has recorded various coronavirus mutations in recent years, though few led to critical illness, according to health officials.
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Al-Ahram Weekly
3 hours ago
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Israeli forces deepening assaults in Gaza City, killing at least 21 in overnight strikes - War on Gaza
The Israeli military said in a statement Wednesday that forces were operating in Gaza City, as well as in northern Gaza. Troops struck roughly 120 targets throughout Gaza over the past day, the military said without elaborating. Meanwhile, Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 21 people late Tuesday and early Wednesday. More than half of those killed were women and children, health authorities said. One Israeli strike hit a house Tuesday in the northwestern side of Gaza City, killing at least 12 people, according to the Shifa Hospital, which received the casualties. The dead included six children and two women, according to the Health Ministry's casualty list. Another strike hit an apartment in the Tal al-Hawa area in northern Gaza, killing at least six people. Among the dead were three children and two women, including one who was pregnant. Eight others were wounded, the ministry said. A third strike hit a tent in the Naser neighbourhood in Gaza City late Tuesday and killed three children, Shifa Hospital said. Desperation is mounting in the Palestinian territory of more than 2 million, which experts say is at risk of famine because of Israel's blockade and nearly two-year offensive. More than 1,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces since May while trying to get food in the Gaza Strip, mostly near aid sites run by an American contractor, the U.N. human rights office said Tuesday. More than 100 human rights groups and charities signed a letter published Wednesday demanding more aid for Gaza and warning of grim conditions causing starvation. In the letter, the groups said they were watching their own colleagues, as well as the Palestinians they serve, 'waste away.' The letter slammed Israel for what it said were restrictions on aid into the war-ravaged territory. It lamented 'massacres' at food distribution points, which have seen chaos and violence in recent weeks as desperation has risen. 'The government of Israel's restrictions, delays, and fragmentation under its total siege have created chaos, starvation, and death,' the letter said. Since the war started in October 2023, the Israeli army has killed more than 59,000 Palestinians, mostly children and women. This story was edited by Ahram Online. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:


Al-Ahram Weekly
5 hours ago
- Al-Ahram Weekly
Bullets instead of aid in Gaza - World - Al-Ahram Weekly
As Israel continues its siege of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian residents are being shot by Israeli Occupation Forces as they queue for food Starving Palestinians in Gaza are now experiencing severe malnutrition and are sharing advice on how to battle the effects of prolonged hunger as the Strip runs out of food. 'To avoid the widespread dizziness and headaches that everyone is suffering from, take some salt to compensate for sodium deficiency,' Fathi Sabbah, a Palestinian from Gaza, wrote on his Facebook page this week. Without food, people are experiencing faintness, severe fatigue, and muscle spasms, he explained. After imposing a blanket ban on the entry of food, water, medicine, and fuel into Gaza since 2 March, the Israeli government is now openly starving the enclave's population of two million people. Reports of mass fainting in the streets as famine sets in have signaled the beginning of a new stage in Israel's genocide in Gaza, where intentional famine is being documented and livestreamed for the world to see. According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), co-sponsored by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the World Food Programme (WFP), the UN children's agency UNICEF, and other agencies, 470,000 people in Gaza are now in IPC Phase 5 (catastrophic hunger), the worst category. The entire population is enduring acute food insecurity across Gaza, with nearly one in every three people going without food for days at a time, according to the WFP. 'People are already starving, sick, and dying, while food and medicines are minutes away across the border,' said WHO Director‑General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. The situation, he added, is 'one of the world's worst hunger crises' unfolding in real time. Israel's blockade has triggered a collapse of food production and distribution and health services. Flour mills and bakeries have been heavily damaged or destroyed by the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF), Gaza's largest wheat mill was bombed earlier in the war, and many bakeries cannot produce bread from whatever scarce flour reaches Gaza. Water access has plummeted, with survivors reporting receiving as little as two to five litres per person per day, only a fraction of the UN's minimum standards. Over 80 per cent of households lack safe water, and sanitation systems are almost non‑existent, with one toilet for every 2,200 people in some shelters, making disease outbreaks inevitable. Cases of respiratory infections, skin diseases, suspected meningitis, scabies, and hepatitis have all surged, amplified by malnutrition and overcrowding. Palestinian survivors paint a picture of daily torment. Videos, photographs, and testimonies of starving people have all flooded social media for months, with live updates of Israeli's apocalyptic actions against the besieged population. One mother speaking to Refugees International, a NGO, recounted feeding her children 'mouldy bread,' while others say they queue for hours only to leave empty‑handed, with nothing but water and tears. 'I don't know how our dreams changed and ended up as just a loaf of bread,' Omar Hamad, a pharmacist from Gaza, wrote on X earlier this week. In response to international pressure, the US State Department launched the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in February, aiming to deliver food via a privately run joint Israeli operation starting on 26 May and bypassing UN-led systems. Its funding is approximately $140 million per month, and it claims to have delivered 75 million meals. But GHF has become one of the most controversial ingredients in Israel's Gaza starvation crisis. During its brief operations, over 615 deaths were recorded by the UN Office for (OHCHR) at or near GHF distribution sites, primarily in Israeli-designated military zones in southern Gaza, as of early July. At least 70 per cent of aid-related fatalities have been traced to GHF sites, which survivors describe as 'death traps' for aid seekers. These include deaths in stampedes and shootings. On 16 July, 20 Palestinians died by crushing or stabbing at a GHF site in Khan Yunis, with earlier incidents seeing over 400 people killed during chaotic aid distributions. The daily shooting of aid seekers by mercenaries and the IOF were cited by witnesses. Ahmed Abu Sido, a Palestinian in Gaza, described his near-death experience while attempting to procure food in the Zikim Crossing distribution point in the south of the Strip. 'Hunger was the only reason that compelled me and my siblings to go there. We were unable to stand on our own two feet,' he wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. Abu Sido said that '99 per cent' of the crowds that went to Zikim were 'dizzy' owing to the lack of food but had had to walk a total of ten km to the aid centre and back in the scorching heat. The moment word spread that the aid trucks had arrived, the shooting began. 'Everyone ducked down, and I heard the whistle of bullets flying next to my head. A 20-year-old barefoot girl next to me broke down in tears and started screaming, 'I don't want to die, take me home!'' Later, he saw an aid truck that typically delivers flour carrying a Palestinian man who had been killed. Both his hands and feet were tied. 'He was headless,' Abu Sido wrote. Abu Sido saw the body of a 12-year-old boy lying on a carriage pulled by a donkey. His mother and sisters were crying as they hugged the lifeless body. 'He told them to wait while he went to get some flour because it was too dangerous. He was starving when he was martyred and never even got the flour,' Abu Sido said. 'I decided to return home after choosing my life over a bag of flour,' he wrote. 'I cursed the centre and humanity, and I said to myself that my life is more precious.' In what has been described as Gaza's deadliest aid‑seeking incident, IOF troops opened fire on crowds queuing near the Zikim Crossing on 20 July, killing between 67 and 93 Palestinians waiting for UN aid trucks. Among the dead were dozens of children. Some reports say 71 children have already perished due to hunger and a lack of medical care. The WFP condemned the violence, saying its convoy was targeted. Health officials say hundreds more were wounded, and the death toll from aid‑related casualties in recent months is now believed to exceed 875 people. The scenes underscore growing desperation: massive crowds, collapsing order, and lethal force met without safe humanitarian structures. Reports from eyewitnesses and humanitarian agencies recount heaps of injured people and survivors, saying that the aid distributions resembled military operations more than relief. The sites are fenced and guarded by private security and Israeli troops. Palestinians must pass through screenings and identity checks in scenes likened to checkpoints, fueling desperation and fear. GHF relies on private security contractors, often US-based firms, to manage logistics and crowd control, raising serious concern over the safety of aid seekers. The UN, Doctors Without Borders, Amnesty International, Oxfam, and over 170 other NGOs have condemned the GHF, citing violations of neutrality, impartiality, and safety. Doctors Without Borders described GHF distributions as 'slaughter masquerading as aid.' Investigations by the UK channel Sky News found that many distributions were announced less than 30 minutes in advance, often via last-minute Facebook posts. Locations were inaccurate or in combat zones and supplies frequently ran out within nine minutes of opening, it said. Some distribution centres are 10 to 20 km away from major population centres, forcing refugees to walk through militarised zones to reach them. Only the strongest make it. UN aid coordinators have refused to work with the GHF, accusing Israel of using the organisation to politicise humanitarian assistance and sideline established UN‑led systems. Israel has banned main UN humanitarian agencies like the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA that have been supplying Gaza with essential aid for decades from operating in the Strip. 'There is no case since World War II of starvation that has been so minutely designed and controlled,' UK famine expert Alex de Waal said. This is entirely man-made starvation, he told the Qatari news channel Aljazeera, 'and every stage has been predicted, and action could have been taken by Israel and the international community to prevent what is happening. Those steps haven't been taken.' Groups including Swiss NGO TRIAL International warn that the GHF leadership may be criminally liable for aiding war crimes or crimes against humanity, especially if sites were used to force population displacement southward. Human rights attorneys highlight the pattern of luring starving civilians into zones where they become targets under the guise of aid. UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini called GHF operations 'an abomination' and a 'death trap costing more lives than it saves.' International humanitarian agencies have repeatedly called for Israel to open all border crossings and allow UN-led agencies to deliver aid based on need, not political alignment, and to declare a ceasefire to enable safe distribution and further the prevent collapse of Gaza's basic services. They have also called for suspending GHF operations pending independent investigation to ensure adherence to humanitarian principles. UN experts have been raising the alarm over the spread of famine in Gaza since July last year. 'With the death of the first child from malnutrition… it becomes irrefutable that famine has taken hold,' the experts said in a statement a year ago following the death of two children from hunger and malnutrition in June 2024. 'We declare that Israel's intentional and targeted starvation campaign… has resulted in famine across all of Gaza.' * A version of this article appears in print in the 24 July, 2025 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:


CairoScene
11 hours ago
- CairoScene
Regional Vaccine Hub Launched at Khalifa Economic Zones
Developed with GlaxoSmithKline and operated by Rafed, the facility will handle more than 20 vaccines for adults and children with smart cold-chain tech and international reach via Etihad PharmaLife. Jul 22, 2025 A new vaccine distribution hub is now operational at Khalifa Economic Zones Abu Dhabi (KEZAD), expanding the emirate's role in global healthcare logistics. Developed with GlaxoSmithKline and operated by Rafed, the facility will handle more than 20 vaccines for adults and children. Featuring advanced cold-chain systems designed to ensure vaccines are stored and transported under tightly controlled conditions, the hub is connected to Etihad Cargo's PharmaLife network, enabling time-sensitive pharmaceutical shipments to over 100 global destinations. The project builds on partnerships formed during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, Abu Dhabi was the first city to receive Sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody developed by GlaxoSmithKline. The treatment was administered to more than 23,000 high-risk patients, setting a precedent for future collaboration in pharmaceutical logistics. The facility joins a broader infrastructure push within Abu Dhabi's healthcare sector. During the pandemic, the emirate's Hope Consortium managed one of the world's largest vaccine storage hubs in Khalifa Industrial Zone, distributing millions of doses globally.