COVID: Mo Salah donates oxygen, ambulance for Egyptian village

January 13 (Al Jazeera) – Liverpool striker Mohamed Salah has donated oxygen and an ambulance to his home village in the Egyptian region of Gharbia, helping locals treat people suffering with COVID-19 as the country battles a second wave of infections.

Salah maintains deep connections with the small, poor village where he grew up, around 130km north of the capital Cairo, and donates around $64,000 each year to the Mohamed Salah Charity Foundation, the group said.

The 28-year-old himself tested positive for the coronavirus last November.

“We have 14 oxygen cylinders inside the Mohamed Salah Charity Foundation. These help people in the village of Nagrig [Salah’s hometown], as well as those from surrounding villages,” said Hassan Bakr, the head of the charity.

Bakr delivers oxygen cylinders direct to patients’ homes.

“We also have an ambulance unit built by Mohamed Salah, which has been operating since July 2020… this also helped us during the coronavirus, when transporting patients to the isolation hospitals.”

Egypt’s government has confirmed 150,753 infections and 8,249 deaths since the start of the pandemic more than 10 months ago.

However, health officials say the real number is likely far higher because of the relatively low rate of coronavirus testing and the exclusion of private test results.