São Paulo – Egypt is experiencing a moderate shortage of coronavirus protection and prevention equipment and materials, such as sanitizer, alcohol, gloves and facemasks, the Al Ahram daily reported this week. The country had 656 cases and 41 deaths according to the latest update from the World Health Organization (WHO).
Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce (FECC) medical supplies division head Mohamed Ismail told Al Ahram that the country relies mainly on China to meet its medical supply needs, since Chinese products are 50% cheaper than locally made ones.
Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand are the biggest suppliers of gloves to Egypt, but China is taking in the entire output from these three countries and will continue to do so until August.
Ismail said that in 2009, as of the H1N1 outbreak, four plants in Egypt were manufacturing a combined 24 million facemasks per year. However, financial issues led to their being shut down some five years ago.
Two of those manufacturers are back in business as Egypt struggles to find suppliers in China, which is working to meet local demand. Ismail said the two plants are unable to meet all of Egypt’s needs. They are providing the Ministry of Health with 50,000 masks a day. The masks “are not headed for the commercial market,” he said.
Any facemasks available to end buyers in Egypt are ones that got into the country before mid-March, Ismail said. While he wouldn’t provide any details, the FECC division chief said this scenario will be short-lived, and Egypt will go from importing to becoming a major exporter of medical supplies within a month.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
