Amnesty International demanded today that Egypt stop its "harassment and intimidation" of health workers, The Guardian reports.
Many of the country's health workers have spoken out against the Egyptian government's handling of the pandemic, pointing out that hospitals lack PPE and that doctors and nurses do not have easy access to either coronavirus testing or adequate healthcare for themselves. Around 70 Egyptian doctors are thought to have died of coronavirus so far.
Amnesty highlighted the cases of eight healthcare workers (six doctors and two pharmacists) who have been arrested and detained since March for online and social media posts expressing their concerns.
"Health care workers in Egypt have been arrested, criminalised and prosecuted simply for daring to express their personal safety concerns and, in some cases, have been denied access to adequate health care," Amnesty said.
Egypt has almost 50,000 confirmed virus cases and at least 1,850 people have died so far.