Last Night’s Talk Shows on 27 December 2020
As the second wave of covid-19 takes hold, the key talking point on the airwaves yesterday was that Egypt’s hospitals are well-equipped and ready. Taking stock of testing capacity: The ministry conducts around 10k nasal swabs on a daily basis across the country and has 62 affiliated labs to process the tests, head of the Health Ministry’s central laboratories department Nancy El Gendy told Al Hayah Al Youm’s Lobna Assal (watch, runtime: 10:07).
The Higher Education Ministry has set up 25 out of 115 university hospitals as dedicated quarantine facilities, while the rest will have isolation wards, ministry spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar told Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi (watch, runtime: 4:26). Around half of ICU beds at university hospitals are now occupied, while regular beds at university hospitals are at a 65% occupancy rate, Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar told Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa (watch, runtime: 0:19).
In a best case scenario, the second wave is sticking around until the end of February. The prediction is based, however, on our experience with the first wave, when citizens were vastly more cooperative and adhered to precautionary measures more strictly than they are now, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar told Moussa (watch, runtime: 1:48). The second wave sees a rising proportion of infections in young children compared to the first wave, according to the head of Kasr Ainy Hospital Amr El Hadidi (watch, runtime: 6:51).
Also on the airwaves last night (and over the weekend):
- More than 2k Egyptian expats are currently stranded in the GCC, with the vast majority in the UAE, Emigration Minister Nabila Makram said (Lobna Assal on Al Hayah Al Youm | watch, runtime: 9:36).
- Political changes in the Middle East and on the global scale were the main topic of discussion for former Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa in a lengthy interview (Ibrahim Eissa | Hadith Al Qahera watch, runtime: 1:26:34).