Egyptian healthcare workers find themselves in a precarious position, with many forced to choose between risking their lives in the fight against Covid-19 and being arrested for voicing safety concerns or criticising the government’s handling of the public health crisis.

These days, if you go walking in the “well-guarded city” – the “Al-Mahrusa” as Cairo has been dubbed – after 8pm, you will see only policemen patrolling the empty streets, enforcing the exceptional rules laid down by the government to limit the spread of the coronavirus.

A member of Egypt’s medical union has appeared at the Supreme State Security Prosecutor’s office for investigation after being arrested on 28 June.

A doctor arrested after writing an article about Egypt’s fragile health system. A pharmacist picked up from work after posting online about a shortage of protective gear. An editor taken from his home after questioning official coronavirus figures. A pregnant doctor arrested after a colleague used her phone to report …

Egypt’s Medical Syndicate publicly condemned Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly’s comments during an address he made yesterday, accusing him of blaming doctors for the country’s worsening epidemiological situation.

When the editor-in-chief of Egypt’s most prominent investigative media outlet was arrested by security forces last month outside Cairo’s notorious Tora prison complex, Leena al-Deeb grabbed her phone to inform her best friend, a local journalist.

Egyptian doctors have expressed anger in recent days, accusing the authorities of neglecting them and failing to protect and provide them with the protective equipment they need. In response, media outlets close to the government accused the doctors of treason, not sacrificing for the sake of the nation and even taking part in plans by …

Shuttered shops and empty streets lie outside Cairo’s Abbasia quarantine hospital. Knowledge that it is treating hundreds of coronavirus patients has muzzled this usually bustling area.

The Egyptian Doctors Syndicate on Wednesday announced the death of three physicians, two of whom were infected with coronavirus. The third doctor died of severe respiratory failure.

Egypt’s pro-regime media have launched a campaign against doctors fighting Covid-19, after the country’s largest medical union published a strongly-worded statement this week accusing the health ministry of “negligence”, resulting in the deaths of medics from coronavirus.