Cairo: A recently elected Egyptian lawmaker had died of COVID-19, becoming the first such fatality in the country’s new legislature, according to Egyptian media.
Dr Jamal Hajaj, a medical doctor, had tested positive for the new coronavirus earlier this month, hours before his win in the parliamentary election as a representative of the province of Benha, north of Cairo.
He was transferred to a local hospital where he died late Friday in an isolation ward. He was buried on Saturday.
Hajaj, the head of a state health insurance service in the province of Qaliubia, ran as a candidate on a list of a party alliance in the second round of Egypt’s legislative elections held earlier this month. He was a provincial secretary-general of the Republican People Party.
Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country of over 100 million people, so far has recorded a tally of 115,183 virus cases and 6,621 related fatalities.
The Egyptian government has recently warned against an anticipated spike in virus infections in the country.
Last week, President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi called on Egyptians to take seriously the precautions against COVID-19 to avoid reimposing tough restrictions, including a partial curfew, taken against the virus outbreak earlier this year.
