Cape Town - An 88-year-old Egyptian man was released from a quarantine hospital on Tuesday in Qaha governorate, north-eastern Egypt, after recovering from the novel coronavirus.
Abdel Moneim Ibrahim, Egypt's oldest Covid-19 patient, felt normal flu symptoms and was taken to Abbasiya Fever Hospital, where he tested positive for the disease.
Ibrahim was then moved to Qaha quarantine hospital, where he stayed for a week and received treatment.
According to Soad Hatata, the chief of the medical team at the quarantine hospital, the patient was tested twice for coronavirus after his transfer to al-Qalyubia from the Abbasiya Fever Hospital. The second test came back negative, reported online news publication Egypt Independent.
The medical team at the hospital celebrated Ibrahim’s recovery as one of the few cases of elderly patients who overcame the virus, especially since World Health Organization (WHO) statistics show that Covid-19 has been found to be fatal in cases of older patients and those with chronic diseases, reported Egypt Today.
The newly infected cases are all Egyptian nationals who returned from abroad or were in contact with previously confirmed cases in Egypt, said Health Ministry spokesperson Khaled Megahed.
The total number of fully recovered cases rose to 589 on Wednesday, all of whom have been discharged from isolation hospitals, said Megahed.
As of Wednesday, Egypt has 2,350 active Covid-19 cases, with the death toll now standing at 178.
Globally, since the first case of the deadly Covid-19 virus was reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, over 2 million people have been infected and 127,493 people have died of the novel coronavirus, according to Covid-19 online tracker Worldometer.
- African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher