A file photo of an Egyptian doctor at one of health ministry's labs (photo courtesy of Health Ministry)
Head of the health ministry's Central Department of Laboratories Nancy El-Gendy said that 6,000 polymerase chain reactions (PCR) analyses are daily conducted free of charge nationwide to detect coronavirus infections.
In an interview with MBC Misr 2 over the phone on Wednesday, El-Gendy explained Cairo's central laboratories conduct 3,000 PCR daily tests while the same number of nose swabs is done daily in the laboratories' branches throughout other governorates.
In a statement earlier this week, the health ministry said that the governorates that have recorded the highest rate of coronavirus infections are Cairo, Giza and Qalioubiya, while the governorates of the Red Sea, Marsa Matrouh and South Sinai recorded the lowest rates.
"Thirty branches of central laboratories have been opened in the governorates to accommodate the large numbers of citizens wishing to conduct PCR tests," El-Gendy said, pointing out that patients have to head immediately to the nearest hospital to perform the swab and the hospital in turn sends it to the laboratory.
On 3 June, Health Minister Hala Zayed
said "anyone who has respiratory symptoms or a high fever should consider himself infected and has to go to the nearest hospital immediately."
The health ministry recently adopted clinical examination results, chest x-rays, and laboratory analyses as a means of diagnosing suspected cases of coronavirus, with those testing positive to start receiving treatment immediately until the result of the PCR test appears.
Since 21 May all
320 general hospitals in Egypt have begun receiving patients suffering from COVID-19 to lift the burden off fever and chest hospitals, which have been receiving coronavirus patients since the outbreak hit the country in mid-February.
The ministry's central laboratories do not perform the swabs for citizens for reassurance, but rather conduct the PCR tests they receive from all hospitals, whether governmental or private.
The latest tally of coronavirus tests announced by Egypt was on 7 May when Presidential Adviser for Health and Prevention Affairs Mohamed Awad Tag El-Din said that the state has conducted over a million coronavirus tests, including over 105,000 PCR tests.
Egypt reported 1,385 new coronavirus cases on
Tuesday, bringing the total number to 36,829 nationwide.
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