Amnesty accuses Egypt of lacking strategy in fight against coronavirus

The human rights organization Amnesty International has criticized the government in Egypt for a lack of strategy and transparency in the fight against coronavirus.

There are delays and backlogs in vaccinating the population, Amnesty said on Tuesday, June 28. People in informal settlements and remote areas as well as migrants often do not know that they can be vaccinated.

Sceptics are not sufficiently informed, Amnesty said. In addition, vaccination of the general population began in March, although millions of elderly and chronically ill people had not yet received the vaccine at that time.

In Egypt, where more than 100 million people live, about 280,000 coronavirus infections have been reported since the beginning of the pandemic. Despite doubts from critics, the government insists that the figures are correct.

According to the statistics of portal Our World in Data, about 3 per cent of the population in the country has been vaccinated so far.

Egypt wants to reach the goal of vaccinating 40 per cent of the population by the end of the year with its own production of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine.

Tourism and Antiquities Minister Khaled El Enany told dpa that Egyptians are now more aware of the risks.

"The mentality has changed a lot in the past two months," El Enany said, referring to those who were hesitant about vaccination.

At the beginning of the campaign, scepticism was still widespread, he said, but now appointments are fully booked.