A team of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) met with authorities during a mission to Egypt to provide COVID-19 technical support. The objectives of the mission were to understand the current situation; review ongoing response activities; provide on-site technical support; and identify strengths and gaps to guide response priorities. The mission which took experts to Cairo and other places, concluded that Egypt is making substantial efforts to control COVID-19 outbreak. “Significant work is being done, especially in the areas of early detection, laboratory testing, isolation, contact tracing and referral of patients,” says Dr Yvan Hutin, Director for Communicable Diseases in WHO’s Regional Office and mission team lead. “But more needs to be done. There is now a critical window of opportunity to effectively control the outbreak before the current local transmission progresses to community transmission. We have
agreed on several areas that can be scaled up, taking a whole-of-government and whole-of-society approach.”