The figures announced are around 85 percent of the target of the first phase, which covers 6 million citizens in six governorates, namely Port Said, Luxor, Ismailia, Aswan, Suez, and South Sinai.

This came in an infographic posted by IDSC to mark the Universal Health Coverage Day, which falls on December 12, shedding light on the new health system's achievements over the past period.

The centre pointed out that more than eight million medical services had been offered in Port Said, Luxor, and Ismailia as well as offering 17,000 telemedicine consultations in Port Said and Luxor.

The project will be supported by the state-of-art automation technologies as part of the Digital Egypt strategy, a broader national plan targeting the digitisation of all government services countrywide.

The six-phase healthcare scheme, launched experimentally in 2018, was scheduled to cover all governorates by 2032, but based on presidential directives, the project will be now completed nationwide by 2027, with the second phase kicking off between 2021 and 2023 to cover Luxor, Matrouh, the Red Sea, Qena.

The third phase will cover Alexandria, Beheira, Damietta, Sohag, and Kafr El-Sheikh; the fourth will cover Beni Suef, Assiut, Minya, the New Valley, and Fayoum, the fifth will cover Daqahliya, Sharqiya, Gharbiya, and Menoufiya, while the last will be in Cairo, Giza, and Qalubiya.

Egypt has been scaling up efforts to develop the healthcare infrastructure, including upgrading clinics and hospitals as well as constructing new health units nationwide.

The total cost of the new scheme is expected to hit EGP 210 billion ($13.38 billion) annually once the entire population, estimated in excess of 100 million citizens, registers in the new system.

The state’s public treasury bore one-quarter of the planned costs to finance the system, with two-quarters of the cost shouldered by subscriptions, and the last quarter provided through other sources of funding, according to Finance Minister Mohamed Maait, who is also the chairman of the UHIS authority.