Coronavirus on the Nile: At least 33 Positive COVID-19 cases and two fatalities in one family Nile Delta “A Case study”

On Thursday, a young Egyptian man announced that his family got at least 33 Coronavirus cases including himself asking the people to pray for them.

This is the biggest outbreak for COVID-19 in a single-family in Egypt announced so far.

This family is from Bahtim in Nile Delta’s Qalybuia and they live there. Their story could be a case study.

This young man is called Siyad and this is his story which sheds light on several problems in Egypt when it comes to Coronavirus.

According to Siyad, it started with his uncle.

His uncle was misdiagnosed in several hospitals as a patient of acute bronchitis till his condition was deteriorated then he was tested positive for Coronavirus and is sent to hospital after infecting his brothers and his mother.

Siyad’s late Grandmother Mrs Ghali passed away as she was being transferred to the hospital shortly after her test results came positive for the virus. Siyad’s uncle passed right after his mother. It is the first family in Egypt to lose two members like that in one single week because of Coronavirus.

His other uncle and his father started to show symptoms and thus they were sent to the hospital too.

Siyad’s late Grandmother was 73-years-old made headlines after her death as an angry mob from Bahtim rejected her burial in the cemetery because they feared from Coronavirus outbreak.

It is the second known case of locals rejecting the burial of a Coronavirus patient in the city or the village’s cemetery for fear of virus outbreak.

On Saturday, many Egyptians followed on the social media the sad saga of burying a-65-years-old retired doctor who due to Coronavirus complications.

Her family could not bury except after the involvement of police force that used tear gas to disperse angry mob rejecting her burial in the cemetery.

The World Health Organization ‘WHO’ refuted all the claims against the burial of Coronavirus victims but I guess this needs to be amplified higher.

Except in cases of hemorrhagic fevers (such as Ebola, Marburg) and cholera, dead bodies are generally not infectious.https://t.co/vGfu3p0tX3 #COVID19 #coronavirus pic.twitter.com/7i63gOBKvL

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) April 10, 2020

It is a sad disgusting incident that should be tackled by the mainstream as well as social media.

People should not treat Coronavirus patients as a pariah.

The alleged index patient

According to news reports, the index patient in Siyad’s family or Mrs Ghalia’s family as it was first called was allegedly a relative who returned from Italy.

They did not give a damn about the social distancing and for some reason, that patient who returned from Italy was not spotted at the airport.

It is not a secret for those who followed the spread of Coronavirus in Egypt that there was a spread of the virus in Nile Delta through a number of Egyptians who returned back from Italy or rather escaped from Italy and were not properly tested and isolated

Siyad’s family organized a gathering to welcome that relative who lives in Gharbia governorate too. “So we are speaking about two different locations with big spun of victims”

It is a social norm in rural Egypt if people do not show up then the other members of the family will be angry. 

That’s why a whole street was isolated officially in Bahtim where 22 positive Coronavirus patients are currently staying in their houses in the street in self-isolation while ten others are currently in Bahtim Central Hospital waiting to be transferred to the quarantine hospital aka Agouza Charity hospital.

Allegedly the virus transferred from that man to several relative including Siyad’s uncle who owns a poultry shop in a street where the rest of the family lives. Thus again, the span of infected people hit the ceiling.

Bahtim is a district in the city of Shubra El-Kheima which follows Al-Qalyubia governorate. Shubra El-Kheima is already the fourth-largest city in Egypt. It was once a village. As in the countryside, family members live beside each other.

There is a big challenge when it comes to social distancing in Egypt, many people do not believe it is important.

Siyad sent a message to the people of Bahtim through a vlogger there pleading them to stay at home and not to underestimate Coronavirus under any circumstances.

Three Coronavirus fatalities in Bahtim

The Egyptian government does not release a breakdown for the fatalities or the patients per governorates like before, we know from social media as well as from news reports from the governorates.

It turned out that Bahtim witnessed last week another Coronavirus fatality and honestly, I do not understand from the news reports if he related to Ghalia’s family or not.

That fatality case is for an-49-years-old man who passed away while he was in a quarantine hospital.

The case of Bahtim family shows how dangerous is Corona in Egypt and how our social norms are helping in its spread.

It also shows another huge challenge in our hospital and medical system: Misdiagnosis. This is not the first time I hear or read about a misdiagnosis of Coronavirus that ends with a fatality.

Till Friday 10/4/2020, Egypt has recorded 1794 Coronavirus cases including 135 fatalities and 384 fully recovery.