Egypt has announced that the new two-week-long operational hours for commercial and entertainment venues will not be applied to beaches, cafes and restaurants at hotels countrywide, yet they will be applied to all other tourist cafes and restaurants outside hotels.

In his statement on Thursday night, Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled El-Anany said tourist cafes and restaurants can deliver takeaways at any time.

The minister also said that wedding parties and other ceremonies will be restricted to open-air places until 9pm, with a maximum of 300 people only.

El-Anany assured that tourism hospitality establishments will operate normally - during the upcoming two weeks - as per the mandated regulations and hygiene safety measures that have been put in place since the resumption of inbound tourism in July 2020.

Under the regulations referenced above, hotels are allowed to run at half capacity to stem the spread of the contagion.

Egypt, which is witnessing a third wave of the pandemic, has introduced a new series of restrictions for the next two weeks to reduce gatherings and crowds and to curtail the current rise in infections, especially with the advent of the Eid Al-Fitr holiday next week.

As of Thursday, closing hours of commercial and entertainment venues in Egypt were brought forward two hours earlier to be at 9pm, with restaurants to be allowed to make home deliveries past 9pm.

All public gatherings, artistic events and mass activities are banned entirely nationwide during the two-week duration.

The measures also comprise the closure of all public parks and beaches for the two-week duration, including Eid Al-Fitr that starts at the end of next week.

As of 27 April, more than 1000 have been infected per day.

Egypt has a total of 234,015 infections since the outbreak last year, including 13,714 deaths and 175,117 recoveries.