LUXOR: A 60-year-old German tourist has died in Egypt, becoming its first fatality from the new coronavirus, the health ministry in Cairo announced on Sunday.
The man was taken to hospital with fever after arriving in Hurghada from Luxor on March 6, and was placed in intensive care but refused to be transferred to a designated isolation hospital, the ministry said.
Egyptian crew and foreign passengers on a Nile cruise ship on which 45 suspected novel coronavirus cases had been detected disembarked Sunday in the southern city of Luxor.
The health ministry has said the 45 would be quarantined even though 11 of them had tested negative in follow-up tests.
The “A Sara” docked in Luxor days after authorities were alerted that a foreign tourist who had previously disembarked had contracted the virus and infected others onboard.
On Saturday, Health Minister Hala Zayed said 33 people on the ship had tested positive without showing any symptoms.
The health ministry had initially said Friday that another dozen asymptomatic crew had tested positive, but Zayed then said another round of testing had indicated 11 were negative.
She said the 11 would “be isolated for a 14-day follow up” while the 34 positive cases would be kept in an isolation hospital.
The boat was carrying 171 people — 101 foreigners and 70 Egyptian crew — Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli said Saturday.
He did not specify the foreigners’ nationalities but said their respective embassies had been contacted.
It was not immediately clear where the other 126 passengers and crew went after disembarking.
On Sunday, Zayed and other officials traveled to Luxor to follow up on quarantine procedures at the city’s airport as part of Egypt’s response to the virus, a government statement said.
The city of Luxor, home to some of Egypt’s most spectacular monuments, is among the country’s top tourist draws.
Besides the cruise ship cases, Egypt has detected three cases of the virus, the first of which was announced on February 14.
The health ministry said last week that the first patient, a Chinese national, had recovered and been released.
The other two cases, a Canadian working in an oil company and an Egyptian who returned from Serbia through France, were still undergoing treatment, according to the ministry.
