The Chinese Embassy in Cairo has announced that Beijing will give Egypt 300,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine for free, which will be sufficient to vaccinate 150,000 people.
The donation comes within the framework of bilateral cooperation between Egypt and China in fighting the coronavirus.
The embassy statement did not clarify the type of vaccine China would be gifting Cairo. The two major vaccines coming from China are Sinopharm and Sinovac, the latter of which does not yet have approval in Egypt.
Earlier in January, Egypt had started vaccinating medical teams with the Sinopharm vaccine, which has a reported 86 percent efficacy against the virus based on an interim analysis according to UAE government media.
Egypt received the first batch of the AstraZeneca-Oxford coronavirus vaccine on Sunday, as part of its total contract for 20 million doses.
Egypt’s Health and Population Ministry said that the 50,000 doses received on Sunday are sufficient for 25,000 people.
The Presidential Advisor for Health and Prevention affairs Mohamed Awad Tag al-Din said that diversity of vaccine sources is of the utmost importance to ensure there are enough, and Egypt seeks to obtain an extended supply of safe vaccines to combat the virus.
He stressed that the country is working hard to secure more doses of the vaccine, and is currently in talks with Chinese and Russian manufacturers.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
