Zayed told reporters on Monday that there were problems supplying COVID-19 patients with oxygen during the first wave of the coronavirus infection in Egypt, but this problem has since been resolved.
"This improves treatment results and lowers the death rate [...] the number of deaths during the second wave [of the pandemic] went down 50 percent as compared to the first phase," Zayed said during a Monday press conference in Cairo.
Egypt has been reporting less than 1,000 new coronavirus cases per day for the past several days. On December 25, the country registered over 1,000 new COVID-19 cases for the first time since the beginning of July.
Egypt’s total coronavirus death toll currently stands at 8,197. The country has registered over 149,000 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic. More than 118,000 people have recovered.
Last week, Egyptian media reported that the country would soon begin clinical trials of the Russian coronavirus vaccine, Sputnik V.