The total number of fatalities caused by the coronavirus in Egypt in 2020 represents some 3.3 percent of the overall mortality rate, Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed said during an interview with satellite TV channel MBC Masr on Saturday.
In response to claims that coronavirus deaths have not been recorded as being caused by COVID-19, Minister Zayed said it would be impossible for someone to die of the virus and have their death be attributed to another cause.
As of 31 December 2020, Egypt recorded 7,631 deaths from the contagion since the first death was recorded on 8 March, almost three weeks after the emergence of the outbreak domestically.
The mortality rate recorded in 2019 in Egypt was 570,580 deaths, compared to 560,308 in 2018, an increase of 1.8 percent, according to the latest data published by the Egyptian Central Agency for Public Mobilisation and Statistics (CAPMAS).
So far, no official data has been released on the mortality rate in 2020 by CAPMAS, the country's only official statistics agency.
However, it is not known whether the overall mortality has increased or decreased. The cabinet’s think tank announced in May that the national death rate in Egypt had dropped 2.8 percent in April, compared to the same month in 2019 and 2018.
Deaths recorded in April came in at 42,144, compared to 43,303 deaths in April 2019 and 43,399 deaths in April 2018, the think tank said in an infographic sent to Ahram Online and published in May, without providing more details about the rest of year.
"According to epidemiology, the number of recorded cases [of coronavirus] represents only 10 percent of the situation on the ground," Zayed said in response to a question, during a TV interview, regarding the current debate about the actual numbers of coronavirus infections in Egypt, adding that this is the case around the world.
"This does not mean that [unregistered] cases are at risk; most likely they experience mild symptoms or are even asymptomatic," she stressed.
"Any cases that require admittance to intensive care units or need to be put on ventilators resort to the health ministry, even if they were not first diagnosed by the ministry's facilities," she explained.
The occupancy rate in the country's 101 isolation, fever, pulmonology hospitals, which are fully equipped for coronavirus patients, stands at 40-45 percent, while intensive care unit occupancy has reached 60 percent and ventilator use is at 42 percent, the minister said.
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