On 12 January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that a novel coronavirus was the cause of a respiratory illness in a cluster of people in Wuhan, Hubei, China, which was reported to the WHO on 31 December 2019.

[74] The infected persons were among the Egyptian staff aboard a Nile River cruise ship, traveling from Aswan to Luxor.

[77] On 7 March, health authorities announced that 45 people on board had tested positive and that the ship had been placed in quarantine at a dock in Luxor.

[79] On 22 July 2020, a report from Human Rights Watch alleged that COVID-19 had infected multiple people inside several Egyptian prisons.

[89] In June 2021, Amnesty International highlighted what it called the Egyptian government's failure to handle the COVID-19 vaccine rollout strategically.

According to Amnesty, the most affected individuals were the ones living in informal urban settlements or remote rural areas, as well as prisoners, refugees and migrants.

In April, Mada Masr reported that Egyptian parliamentarians and their families were given preferential treatment to choose between the two vaccines and received their jabs sooner than others, despite not being officially listed on any priority group.

[96] Foreign media outlets have reported that certain individuals have been arrested for allegedly spreading false information about the coronavirus pandemic.