Egypt's Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar inaugurated on Saturday a fully automated cooling logistical complex for the storage and distribution of vaccines, which serves the country's plan to become a vaccine hub for Africa.
The construction of the complex started in April in cooperation with China's Sinovac Biotech under an agreement signed between the Egyptian and Chinese sides at the Egyptian embassy in Beijing in January.
The complex is located in 6 October City at the state-owned Holding Company for Vaccines and Biological Products VACSERA, one of the oldest manufacturers of vaccines and sera in Africa and the Middle East.
Abdel-Ghaffar said in a statement issued following the event that the step, which is a contribution from the Chinese company, will help enhance vaccine storage capacities in Egypt and make it a regional hub for the manufacturing and storage of vaccines in Africa.
Egypt has drawn up "a comprehensive" plan to develop VACSERA in line with its strategy to become a center for the production of vaccines to meet the requirements of African countries, the minister said.
The cooling complex – built by the Chinese construction heavyweight CSCEC company – is built on area of 3,180 square meters, with a capacity to accommodate 100-150 million doses of vaccine annually.
The complex is managed automatically without any human intervention in using the warehouse management system WMS, which controls the storage of vaccines in a way that improves work efficiency and organizes storage spaces, Waly explained.
Today's event witnessed the signing of a document of receipt of 10 million doses of coronavirus Sinovac vaccine as part of a total of 60 million doses provided by the Chinese government to the north African country.
The complex’s inauguration was attended by presidential adviser for health affairs Mohamed Awad Tag El-Din, Chairman of the Egyptian Authority for Unified Procurement (UPA) Bahaa El-Din Zidan, WHO Representative in Egypt Naeema Al-Gasseer, among others.
Source: Al-Ahram Online
