Egypt signed contracts to
get nearly 120 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, however about 10 million
doses are available so far due to the high world demand of COVID-19 jabs,
Health Minister Hala Zayed said on Friday.
Zayed said in televised statements that Egypt’s VACSERA has produced around
650,000 doses of the China's Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine, and stability studies on
vaccine are conducted and will take a few days, and then the vaccine will be
ready to be administered to Egyptian citizens in August.
Egypt will receive raw materials within days to manufacture more doses of
Sinovac vaccine, she said. No stability studies will be conducted in the coming
stages of manufacturing and the vaccine will be offered directly to the
vaccination centers, she added.
The minister revealed that Egypt is studying vaccinating citizens, who were
administered AstraZeneca for their first dose with any other vaccine in the
second dose to give them more immunity. But, Egypt is waiting for the
recommendations of the World Health Organization, she clarified. Egypt seeks to
vaccinate 40 million people by the end of the current year, she added.
The Health Ministry said Friday night that 198 new coronavirus cases were detected, upping the total number of confirmed cases since the outbreak in the country began to 281,772.
In a statement, Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said 21
patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death
toll to 16,215. As many as 666 patients were discharged from isolation
hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of
recovered cases to 212,725 so far, the spokesman said.
Naeema Al-Gasseer, the representative of the World Health Organization in Egypt congratulated Egypt for locally producing the first batch of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine.
Egypt’s Minister of Health Hala Zayed announced on Wednesday that Egypt managed to already produce the first 300,000 doses of the Chinese vaccine through the Egyptian Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA).
Zayed said Sinovac has approved the possibility that Egypt produces 80 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine per six months.
Starting August, 10-15 million Egypt-made vaccine doses will be available per month to vaccinate 40 million citizens by the end of the year, Zayed said. So far, the country has allocated over 400 centers to serve as vaccination points.
Source: Egypt Today
