The national death rate in Egypt has dropped 2.8% in April, the peak of the country's coronavirus outbreak, compared to the same month in 2019 and 2018, the cabinet's think tank announced on Sunday. The coronavirus pandemic "has not led to an increase in the national mortality rate," the cabinet's information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) said. Deaths recorded in April came in at 42,144 deaths, compared to 43,303 deaths in April 2019 and 43,399 deaths in April 2018, it said in an infographic sent to Ahram Online. Although Cairo has the biggest number of coronavirus cases in the country according to the World Health Organization (WHO), the IDSC said that the death rate in the capital fell 7.3% in April compared to the same month the previous year. The governorates of Daqahlia, Assuit and Damietta also saw a drop in April death rate compared to the year before. The figures are based on data provided by the planning and health ministries, a cabinet spokesman said. Egypt has so far recorded 514 fatalities out of 8,964 confirmed coronavirus cases, with a mortality rate of 5.7% of people confirmed as having been infected. The IDSC stressed that the coronavirus death rate in Egypt is still “within safe limits compared to [other] countries around the world”. In mid-April, the death rate from COVID-19 in the country exceeded 7.5% of confirmed cases. WHO representative in Egypt John Jabbour and Egyptian health officials had earlier said that around 30 percent of COVID-19 fatalities in Egypt died before reaching isolation hospitals or receiving medical treatment.
