Egypt reopens more hotels for tourists amid anti-coronavirus measures

Egypt reopened 31 more hotels for tourists last week amid anti-COVID-19 measures.

This raised the number of hotels reopened nationwide to 572, an Egyptian Tourism Ministry official said in a statement on Saturday.

The hotels have been reopened with a limited capacity after receiving an official hygiene safety certificate issued by a joint inspection commission from the ministries of Tourism and Health, said Abdel-Fattah al-Aasy, Assistant Minister of Tourism and Antiquities for monitoring hotel facilities.

Egypt started reopening hotels in mid-May, but they were limited to local tourism initially due to the international flight suspension.

The North African country started to resume international flights on July 1 amid a “coexistence plan” to maintain anti-coronavirus precautionary measures while resuming economic activities.

The government recently lifted a partial night-time curfew it had imposed since late March and reopened restaurants, cafes, theatres and cinemas as well as hotels, museums and archaeological sites for tourists, all with limited capacity.

Tourism is one of the main sources of national income and foreign currency in Egypt.

The country’s tourism revenues hit a record high of $13 billion in 2019.

Until Friday night, Egypt registered a total of 86,474 COVID-19 cases, including 4,188 deaths and 27,302 recoveries. (Xinhua/NAN)