Covid-19 dominated proceedings on the airwaves last night: Al Hayah Al Youm's Lobna Assal provided the details on the Canadian resident who on Sunday tested positive for covid-19 (watch, runtime: 1:57), and spoke with cabinet spokesman Nader Saad, who said that some 1500 workers at the patient’s company (Khalda Petroleum Company) are being quarantined on-site for 14 days and are being inspected twice daily (watch, runtime: 5:40). Al Kahera Alaan’s Lamees El Hadidi also carried the same report, speaking by phone with Nancy El Gendi, the head of the Health Ministry’s central laboratories department, who added that another 1427 company workers that the patient could have come into contact with were also being quarantined in their homes for 14 days (watch, runtime: 7:14).

Qatar singling out Egypt? El Hadidi spoke by phone with Al Shorouk's Editor-in-Chief Emad El-Din Hussein, who questioned Qatar’s decision to place Egypt on a covid-19 watchlist, alongside China, Iran, Italy, and South Korea, among other countries (watch, runtime: 5:16).

Naeem chimes in on market performance: El Hadidi spoke by phone with Naeem Holding’s head of technical analysis Ibrahim Al Nimr, who said that the markets on Monday got off to a good start, but lost many of their gains by the end of the day due to covid-19 fears. (watch, runtime: 5:21). More on this in this morning’s Speed Round, below.

Will car prices spike? El Hadidi also spoke with the president of the Automobile Dealers Association, Osama Abu Al Magd, who said that the coming period will see a rise in the price of many cars in the local market because of the covid-19 outbreak. He added that not only Chinese cars will be impacted, but Korean and Japanese brands as well, in addition to the spare parts supply from the Chinese market. Abu Al Magd noted that several Asian brands have already suspended production of some of their assembly lines (watch, runtime: 15:49).