COVID-19: Egyptian businessman donates LE 51.5M to back state’s pandemic strategy

In a press statement, Heikal said the donation aims at supporting irregular workers, whose living conditions worsened due to the coronavirus outbreak

COVID-19: Egyptian businessman donates LE 51.5M to back state’s pandemic strategy

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CAIRO – 7 May 2020: Egyptian businessman Youssef Mansour, chairman of family-owned conglomerate Mansour Group, has donated LE 51.5 million ($3.26 million) to back the state’s efforts to fight coronavirus, according to a letter sent to the prime minister.

The letter revealed that LE 25 million of the contribution would be handed to the Ministry of Health to help upgrade its chest and fever hospitals, while LE 10 million will be added to the donation-based national fund “Tahya Misr” (Long Live Egypt) to support the ministry’s needs, including preventive requirements and medical equipment.

LE 15 million will be allocated for buying 200,000 packages of food products for the medical staff in fever and quarantine hospitals and needy families, including informal workers who have been badly hit by the economic repercussions of the coronavirus crisis, the letter read.

The remaining LE 1.5 million will be spent on 10,000 impacted families nationwide.In April, Minister of State for Information Osama Heikal said the Presidency staff will donate 20 percent of their salaries to Tahya Misr fund for three months.

Later in April, health official sources said the Health Ministry received LE 162 million ($10.284 million) in donations from civil society organizations and corporates, to support its efforts in facing the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), health official sources said.

Three companies sent letters of donations to Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli, the Cabinet said in a statement.

The donors include Mansour Automotive Egypt, which sent LE 50 million; Tatweer Misr for real estate development, which sent LE 5 million; and Ibn Sina Pharma pharmaceutical company, which donated LE 4 million.
On Wednesday, the Egyptian Health Ministry said 387 people in the country tested positive for the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) recently, making one of the highest daily counts in Egypt, and 17 people died with the virus.

This brings the total number of reported cases and deaths to 7,588 and 469 respectively, the ministry said.

The test results of 2,314 people of the reported cases turned from positive to negative, including 1,815 people who fully recovered.

Also, 85 cases, all of them Egyptians, left hospital after they recovered, according to the instructions of the World Health Organization (WHO).