Recent government decisions dominated the airwaves last night, with the talking heads each taking turns phoning government officials for their two cents. Among the highlights:

Renewed austerity measures: A six-month extension of pandemic-era austerity measures to streamline public spending, after Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly signed the decision into law. The story made the rounds on Kelma Akhira, with Lamees El Hadidi phoning Hany Mahmoud, the prime minister advisor for administrative reform to weigh in (watch, runtime: 4:40). Mahmoud said the measures, which also include putting a freeze on government hiring and promotions, target “unnecessary expenses” and will not affect employees or the performance of their agencies. The extension was approved by the cabinet last month.

Vaccination deadline for gov’t employees: El Hadidi also spoke to cabinet spokesperson Nader Saad to discuss yesterday’s Health Ministry decision to make vaccines mandatory for government employees and for anyone entering government agencies (watch, runtime: 6:18). According to Saad, the decision was made possible off the back of Egypt significantly increasing its stock of vaccine doses in recent months. El Hekaya’s Amr Adib also took note of the decision (watch, runtime: 8:42), which we recap in Covid Watch, above.