Turned Away from Hospitals, a Tora Prison Employee Dies, Raising Concern About the Pandemic in Overcrowded Prisons

The death of a Tora Prison complex employee on Friday who tested positive for COVID-19 is raising concerns that the pandemic might spread to Egypt’s overcrowded prisons, where there has been a documented lack of healthcare provision.

Sayed Ahmed Hegazy died on Friday, just under two weeks since he first began exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19 on May 18.  According to two of his family members who spoke to Mada Masr on condition of anonymity, the Hegazy family struggled to find him a hospital bed after being denied help from the Interior Ministry and his employer, and being turned away at several private hospitals on account of not having a copy of his PCR test results that confirmed he had tested positive. Hegazy died in the family’s car as they were driving to a private hospital in an attempt to have him admitted for care.

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