The government’s decision to seek IMF funding to help cope with the economic fallout from covid-19 was the chief talking point on the airwaves last night. That being said, the vast majority of talk shows are on their regularly scheduled Ramadan hiatus, leaving only a handful of talking heads to zone in on the topic.

The broad strokes: Al Kahera Alaan’s Lamees El Hadidi recapped Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly’s announcement on the funding request and broke down for her viewers what the packages could entail. Lamees also explained that the government needed to seek IMF funding as the global economy slows down as a result of the pandemic. Egypt, she said, is looking to protect the progress it has made thus far on the economic reform front. We have chapter and verse in this morning’s Speed Round, below (watch, runtime: 16:41).

The funding does not come with demands that Egypt enact further economic reforms and is only meant to provide financial support, Cabinet spokesman Nader Saad was careful to note on Sada El Balad’s ‘Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 2:54).

Back on the covid-19 front: We could see some measure of normalcy restored in the tourism industry post-Ramadan, Federation of Tourism Chambers Hossam El Shaer told Lamees. The government is looking at resuming domestic tourism and allowing for restaurants to reopen, albeit with strict precautionary measures such as limiting hotels’ occupancy rates and enforcing physical distance requirements at restaurants and beaches, El Shaer said (watch, runtime: 5:34).