Egypt will receive, within days, two million doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine, followed by doses of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine.
It will also employ the first doses of the locally produced Sinovac vaccine in early August.
Minister of Health and Population Hala Zayed said on Saturday that the process of receiving vaccines for the first time is lengthy and involves safety inspections and training.
She added that the ministry is aiming to vaccinate all education employees by the beginning of the next school year.
Zayed explained that the epidemiological situation of coronavirus is safe, whether in infections or deaths, compared to last year’s rates. She noted that the government has not traced the delta variant of the virus.
Egypt’s Health and Population Ministry on Saturday confirmed 121 new coronavirus cases on Friday, bringing the country’s total number of confirmed cases to 282,985.
The total number of COVID-19-related deaths has now reached 16,383 nationwide, after the ministry announced 15 deaths.
And 432 patients were discharged from quarantine at isolation hospitals, raising Egypt’s total number of fully-recovered cases to 217,756.
Egypt’s vaccination campaign that began in January has so far vaccinated 2.5 million people, out of Egypt’s population of 102 million. The country aims to vaccinate 40 percent of its citizens by the end of 2021.
Egypt is currently using China’s Sinopharm vaccine and the UK’s AstraOxford vaccine. The Ministry of Health has announced that it will soon begin producing Russia’s Sputnik V alongside Sinovac at VACSERA.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
