A third high-ranking officer, Mahmoud Shahin, who recently met with the two deceased officers, has also tested positive for Covid-19
Major General Shafea Dawoud (L) and Major General Khaled Shaltout have died from Covid-19 (Facebook)
By MEE staff
Published date: 23 March 2020 13:04 UTC
Two senior members of the Egyptian armed forces have died after being infected with the novel coronavirus, according to an army statement, as the country grapples with a daily rise in new cases.
According to a statement cited by pro-government media, Major General Shafea Abdel Halim Dawoud died from Covid-19 on Monday and Major General Khaled Shaltout died from the disease on Sunday “while taking part in efforts to contain the outbreak”.
The Egyptian armed forces had not previously released a statement about the two generals being infected with the virus.
Dawoud had served as the head of the mega projects department at the Armed Forces Engineering Authority, while Shaltout was the head of the water projects department in the same authority.
A report by the Egyptian organisation We Record, published 10 days ago and cited by Middle East Eye last week, had demanded that Egyptian authorities reveal details of Covid-19 infections within the Engineering Authority, after receiving credible information that Dawoud, along with two others, had tested positive for the virus.
The report said that it had been informed by insiders since 10 March that Dawoud, his driver and three senior officers had tested positive for Covid-19.
We Record also said on 13 March that Dawoud had shown symptoms of a fever during a meeting with Shaltout and the chairman of the Engineering Authority, Major General Mahmoud Shahin.
Shahin has also tested positive for the virus, according to a member of the organisation, who refused to be named for security reasons.
‘Full transparency’
All employees at the departments where Dawoud and Shaltouth worked have been ordered to carry out tests at a military facility, the member of the organisation told MEE.
“We are not attacking Egyptian authorities, but our goal is to safeguard Egyptians, civilians and members of the army,” the organisation, which documents human rights abuses in the Middle East, said in a statement.
“Transparency and the timely announcement of confirmed cases could help to contain the spread of the virus.”
The officers’ cases, according to the organisation, is possibly not limited to them, but it might have affected their colleagues and family members, and anyone who came into contact with them.
‘The later the diagnosis is announced, the higher the risk that it expands to more people’
– spokesperson, We Record
“The later the diagnosis is announced, the higher the risk that it expands to more people,” it added.
The reports of deaths in the armed forces come after President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the supreme commander of the armed forces, defended his government’s efforts to deal with the virus.
On Saturday, Sisi said in a televised speech, his first since the beginning of the outbreak in February, that his government had dealt with the coronavirus pandemic with “full transparency”, denying that the true infection rate is much higher than official figures.
He also added that his government had allocated 100bn Egyptian pounds ($6.4 billion) to fund a state plan to confront the crisis.
The country’s health ministry has so far reported 327 cases of Covid-19 and 14 deaths.
But infectious disease specialists at the University of Toronto believe the number of infections in Egypt is likely to be much higher than the official figures.
Egypt’s Sisi ‘quarantined’ over contact with top soldier killed by Covid-19 Middle East Eye10:45
President’s first public appearance in weeks on Saturday followed 14 days in isolation with family amid growing concerns about extent of infection within the army
Sisi (R) pictured on Saturday with Mohamed Awad Tag Eldin, a health and prevention adviser to the Egyptian president (Reuters)
Published date: 23 March 2020 14:38 UTC
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and his family spent two weeks in quarantine after he was in contact with a senior soldier whose death from Covid-19 was reported on Monday, Middle East Eye has learned.
The deaths of two army generals, Shafea Dawoud and Khaled Shaltout, after testing positive for Covid-19, were reported by pro-government media on Sunday and Monday.
An Egyptian source told MEE that Dawoud, who died on Monday, had met with Sisi days before testing positive for coronavirus.
Coronavirus in Egypt: Senior generals die amid fears of undisclosed infections in army Read More »
“It is very likely that Sisi has been infected after meeting Shafea,” the source said, adding that the president and his family had been put under quarantine for two weeks over concerns that he had contracted the virus.
MEE has not been able to independently verify whether Sisi contracted the virus. MEE contacted the Egyptian embassy in London for comment but had not heard back at the time of publication.
On Saturday, in the president’s first public appearance since mid-February, he said that his government “has not hidden anything” from Egyptians regarding the true scale of the coronavirus outbreak in the country.
“We have dealt with the subject since the beginning and like always with full transparency… all health ministry and government statements reflect the reality we are living,” he said during a meeting with leading Egyptian women on the occasion of the country’s women’s day.
Despite advice on social distancing, a photo released by the Egyptian Presidency on Saturday also showed Sisi sitting in close proximity to Mohamed Awad Tag Eldin, his adviser on health and prevention affairs, in an otherwise empty room at the presidential palace.
MEE’s source, who preferred to remain anonymous for security reasons, said that Dawoud had contracted the virus after coming into contact with a colleague who had recently travelled to Italy.
Egyptian pro-government media reported that Dawoud and Shaltout caught the virus “as a result of their efforts in confronting the virus”.
The two generals worked for the military’s Engineering Authority, the economic arm of the army tasked with carrying out mega projects such as the construction of a new capital and the Suez Canal Development Projects.
“They usually attend meetings with Sisi to brief him on their work running the army’s mega projects,” the source told MEE.
A report by the Egyptian rights group We Record on 13 March had said that Dawoud and Shaltout tested positive for the virus, but that there was a media blackout restricting reporting of their cases.
The group urged the Egyptian government to reveal the scale of infections within the army to protect “both civilians and members of the armed forces” and prevent an escalation in cases in the country.
The Egyptian health ministry has so far reported 327 cases of Covid-19 and 14 deaths.
But infectious disease specialists at the University of Toronto believe the number of infections in Egypt is likely to be much higher than the official figures.
Egyptian authorities have revoked the licence of a correspondent for the Guardian newspaper who cited the research by the University of Toronto, accusing her of “misinformation”.