Another day, another record-breaking covid tally: Daily covid cases jumped to 2,018 on Saturday, the Health Ministry reported, up from 2,007 the day before — marking the fourth straight daily record for new cases. Case numbers have continued to climb since hitting 1,809 new infections last Wednesday, surpassing the previous record of 1,774, set in June 2020, during the first wave of the virus. Egypt has now disclosed a total of 421,478 confirmed cases of covid-19. The ministry also reported 44 new deaths, bringing the country’s total death toll to 22.566.

The current Omicron wave is expected to peak in mid-February before cooling off in early March, manager of Vascera allergy center Amgad El Haddad told Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi (watch, runtime: 11:45). Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 17:06) also took note of the spike in case numbers.

The vaccine tally: 25,763,453 people are now fully vaccinated against the virus, while some 11.4 mn people have received only their first shots and 615,876 people have received booster shots.

We received 4 mn covid vaccine doses from the UK as part of the Gavi / Covax program on Thursday, British Ambassador to Egypt Gareth Bayley said on Friday, without specifying the type of jabs donated. Bayley added that the bilateral donation was one of the largest ever made by the UK.

Merck’s antiviral covid-19 pill Molnupiravir will only be administered to the elderly and patients with weak immunity, Health Ministry spokesperson Hossam Abdel Ghaffar told DMC on Thursday (watch, runtime: 2:53). The Egyptian Drug Authority approved Molnupiravir for emergency use in hospitals last week, paving the way for five local firms to begin supplying local hospitals with the medication.