The COVID-19 Pandemic in Egypt: Repercussions and Policies

This report investigates the Egyptian government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting the economic and socio-political repercussions of this pandemic, and discusses who bore the brunt of the pandemic's impact. It also presents the government's various crisis management strategies, as well as the approaches proposed to recover in the short- and medium-term. The report demonstrates that the pandemic did not mark the beginning of an economic and political crisis in Egypt, but rather exacerbated long-existing structural crises. The pandemic and its accompanying precautionary measures have highlighted the negative impact of neoliberal approaches the state has adopted in the past decades. Neoliberal policies were not without social bias and exposed the poor and most vulnerable groups to disastrous living conditions. The pandemic has proven that state and societal dependence on political security considerations limits crisis management capacities, in addition to weakening governance. Despite the extreme inadequacy of social distancing measures and epidemiological mismanagement, Egypt's relatively young population seems to have reduced the impact of the pandemic, which may explain the contradiction between the government's limited response and low incidence and death rates.

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Abstract

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This report investigates the Egyptian government's response to the Covid-19 pandemic, highlighting the economic and socio-political repercussions of this pandemic, and discusses who bore the brunt of the pandemic's impact. It also presents the government's various crisis management strategies, as well as the approaches proposed to recover in the short- and medium-term. The report demonstrates that the pandemic did not mark the beginning of an economic and political crisis in Egypt, but rather exacerbated long-existing structural crises. The pandemic and its accompanying precautionary measures have highlighted the negative impact of neoliberal approaches the state has adopted in the past decades. Neoliberal policies were not without social bias and exposed the poor and most vulnerable groups to disastrous living conditions. The pandemic has proven that state and societal dependence on political security considerations limits crisis management capacities, in addition to weakening governance. Despite the extreme inadequacy of social distancing measures and epidemiological mismanagement, Egypt's relatively young population seems to have reduced the impact of the pandemic, which may explain the contradiction between the government's limited response and low incidence and death rates.

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