The Health Ministry is expanding healthcare coverage to another 15 mn people nationwide while the government rolls out its universal health ins. scheme across the country, it said in a statement yesterday. Some 69 mn people will now have access to health ins.(outside of the universal scheme) after the ministry decided to add 6.5 mn farmers, 6.2 mn irregular workers in transport, logistics and mining, 1.8 mn business owners, 700k microbus and taxi drivers, as well as tens of thousands of workers in the fishing industry and members of artists’ and actors’ unions to the system.

Other things we’re keeping an eye on this morning:

• Assiut oil refinery inaugurated: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi inaugurated yesterday Assiut Oil Refining Company’s new USD 450 mn oil refinery, which is expected to produce about 800k tonnes of high-octane gasoline each year.
• Serbia is considering setting up silos to store Serbian wheat at the Suez Canal Economic Zone to act as a distribution center for MENA and West Asia.
• Some 8.5k new hotel rooms are expected to be added to Egypt’s hospitality sector in 2022, with an expected EGP 9-10.2 bn of investment.