It was a mixed bag of nuts on the airwaves last night: Ala Mas’ouleety dedicated a slot to covid-19 protocol in schools ahead of the start of the new academic year, the environment minister dropped into Al Hayah Al Youm to discuss new legislation to regulate waste, while building violations continued to get airtime.

Back to school amid covid-19: Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa spoke with presidential health advisor Mohammad Awad Tag Eldin, who discussed the World Health Organization’s recommendations on schools reopening amid the ongoing pandemic. Tag Eldin noted that while the WHO recommended a continuation of distance learning, it also said that each country has its own circumstances to address. He said that the government is handling the return to school carefully, and that safety guidelines would remain in place until at least March. They discussed vaccines briefly, noting that while over 100 are being tried, only a handful had reached the final testing phase (watch, runtime: 22:24). Yahduth Fi Misr’s Sherif Amer spoke with Hossam Hosny, the head of the covid-19 task force, who said that contingency plans are in place in the event of cases breaking out in schools, without mentioning what these are (watch, runtime: 3:57), (watch, runtime: 4:07), (watch, runtime: 3:11).

Latest on building violations: Moussa spoke with the governor of Al Sharqiyah, Mamdouh Ghorab, who said that clearances and demolitions of illegal buildings are being carried out daily. Only 35% of people (some 50k) found to be in breach of the building code have applied to settle the violations, he said (watch, runtime: 3:43). Moussa also spoke with Minya’s governor, Osama El Qadi, who said that around 49k citizens had applied for settlement, out of a total of over 110k, and that 39k of them had already paid the fees (watch: runtime: 5:00). Ahmed Moussa also spoke briefly with the governors of Greater Cairo, Dakhla, Aswan, and Gharbia (watch, runtime: 10: 13), (watch, runtime: 6:56), (watch, runtime: 4:13), (watch, runtime: 30:15), (watch, runtime: 6:21).

New waste management efforts: Al Hayah Al Youm’s Mohamed Sherdy spoke with Environment Minister Yasmine Fouad, who discussed the latest legislation to improve waste management. The legislation goes beyond outlining regulations and allows for the establishment of a regulatory authority that can engage and collaborate with the private sector on the ground, helping with issuing licenses and setting prices, she said (watch, runtime: 2:26). The ministry is also looking into ways of integrating the informal sector of cleaners and garbage collectors by registering them with the government and creating an association to represent them, she added (watch, runtime: 4:03).