Liverpool striker Salah donates oxygen to support his Egyptian village's COVID fight

GHARBIA, Egypt (Reuters) - 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.

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 cyclinders 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."

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

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.

(Reporting by Ahmed Fahmy; Writing by Nadeen Ebrahim, Editing by Alexandra Hudson)