The Egyptian Batel (Void) opposition campaign has called for the release of more than a thousand doctors and healthcare workers in prisons to help in countering the pandemic
The Batel campaign called for providing doctors, medical teams and hospitals with the material and psychological support they need in their fight against the outbreak of the coronavirus, including the necessary personal protection equipment, stressing that “the life of a doctor means the lives of thousands of Egyptians.”
The opposition campaign demanded, in a statement it issued on Wednesday, that “all potentials must be harnessed today to support the Egyptian health sector, even if that required allocating the largest portion of the budget allocated to confront the outbreak of COVID-19 to the health sector,” stressing the need to protect doctors and their supporting teams.
Batel said: “Egypt cannot be suffering from a shortage of medical personnel, while there are more than 1,000 doctors and healthcare workers in prisons.” The campaign published more than 100 names of the arrested doctors, adding: “The regime must put aside any political dispute and must release these doctors for use in government hospitals, prison hospitals, or military hospitals.”
Batel campaign demanded to immediately allow medical treatment free of charge for all citizens in military hospitals, stressing that “Egypt cannot face a fateful danger while the regime continues to insist on treating civilians as second-class citizens.”
The opposition campaign added, “Today, the armed forces must prove their true bias towards the people and stop distinguishing the military from civilians,” noting that “the policies adopted by the regime over the past years proved a catastrophic failure in attempt to swallow the whole country in favor of the military, and the institution must immediately correct this mistake in the face of the coronavirus epidemic”.
The campaign also called on all public workers and human rights defendants to adopt these demands, which it said were intended to save the lives of Egyptians.
Batel said: “Egypt is undoubtedly on the verge of a real catastrophe, which will be paid for by all Egyptians in light of the lack of transparency and the absence of the regime’s scientific and public interaction with the phenomenon of the coronavirus outbreak in all Egyptian governorates.”
The opposition campaign pointed out that “the Egyptian regime missed a real opportunity in which the people of the homeland could unite in facing this imminent danger, and preferred to use its security stick with critics of its narrative on the pandemic, and maintained the policy of media misleading to the Egyptians, disregarding a catastrophe that might claim the lives of thousands of innocent people and result in economic damage that would increase poverty among Egyptians. “
“We extend our hands to all Egyptians in order to save our country. A doctor means saving the lives of thousands of Egyptians,” Batel campaign concluded.
Calling for the release of more than a thousand doctors and healthcare workers in Sisi’s prisons to help in countering the pandemic, the campaign published more than 100 names of these arrested doctors as follows:
