Pope Tawadros II thanks Egypt’s medical staff for their anti-coronavirus efforts

CAIRO – 25 April 2022: Pope Tawadros II, Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark, expressed his gratitude and appreciation to Egypt’s medical staff and the ambulance service for their great efforts during the Coronavirus pandemic.



The Pope’s appreciation was given during the East Mass on Saturday evening in St. Mark's Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo’s Abbasiya amid high presence of priests and Coptic citizens.



Thousands of Orthodox Copts and a number of state leaders attended the celebrations in the cathedral to congratulate the Copts on the Glorious Easter, which comes this year on Sunday 24 April.



The curve of the coronavirus infection has gone down recently due to the ongoing vaccination campaigns for the citizens and measures that had been taken by the government since the outbreak of the pandemic in March 2020 and resulted on cancelling physical religious celebrations in churches.



This year celebrations occurred at the Abbasiya Cathedral with prohibiting hand greetings or kissing at all while. This is in addition to the necessity of adhering to the designated seating places indicated in the cathedral and maintaining safe distancing



The Cabinet has announced easing coronavirus restrictions in mosques during the holy month, including lifting a two-year-ban on Ramadan charity banquets known as “Mawaid Al-Rahman” where poor people gather in streets around huge tables of cooked food.



On 14 April, Egypt’s Qena governorate has been declared free from coronavirus for the first time since the outbreak of the virus in March 2022, said the Ministry of Health and Population in a statement. The ministry added that all the PCR samples for suspected cases or travelers in the governorate tested negative for the virus over the past 15 days.



The ministry attributed the reason to the high vaccination rates and booster doses given to citizens. He added that medical teams across the governorate’s hospitals commit to their national duty to deliver the vaccine to all citizens.



On April 6, 2022, the ministry also declared the northern Egyptian governorate of Beheira free from coronavirus cases for the first time since the start of the pandemic.



Beheira has been one of the Egyptian governorates with the highest coronavirus vaccination rates, the ministry said, quoting Hany Gemeia, deputy undersecretary of the ministry in Beheira.