Egypt's only COVID-19 case released from hospital

CAIRO - Egypt's only announced case of COVID-19, known as the novel coronavirus, was discharged from hospital after the quarantine period was over and the case has tested negative, said a joint statement by the Egyptian Health Ministry and the World Health Organization (WHO) on Thursday.

The recovered case was of a foreign national and Egypt is now completely free from any coronavirus cases, said Egyptian Health Ministry's spokesman Khaled Megahed.

He noted that all the tests the foreigner went through were conducted under supervision of both the Egyptian Health Ministry and the WHO.

Both health bodies previously announced that the foreigner suspected of having contracted the virus had undergone six RT-PCR tests in three consecutive days and they all resulted negative.

For his part, WHO representative in Egypt Jean Jabbour praised the precautionary measures taken by Egypt to combat COVID-19 and the country's success in discovering and dealing with its sole case.

Meanwhile, Egypt's Health Minister Hala Zayed held a meeting on Thursday evening with the ministry's senior officials to follow up the implementation of the precautionary measures to face the novel coronavirus.