The Egyptian Health Ministry on Thursday said the government has received a shipment of more than 1.7 million AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine doses through the COVAX initiative and another shipment of 500,000 Sinopharm vaccine doses from China, reported Reuters.
According to the health ministry, Egypt got its first delivery of 854,000 AstraZeneca doses via the COVAX initiative in April. The country has also received several shipments of the Sinopharm vaccine, which brings the total number of delivered vaccine doses to 5 million.
Notably, some 2.7 million people have registered online with the health ministry to receive a vaccine. Authorities opened a mass vaccination center in Cairo earlier this month capable of vaccinating 10,000 people per day.
Earlier this week, the Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed announced that the country will begin local production of 60 million doses of the Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine next month, under an agreement signed between the Egyptian Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA) and the Chinese vaccine making company.
Egypt is expected to receive the first shipment of the material required for producing the final vaccine on May 18. The ministry expects that VACSERA will produce roughly 40 million doses of the vaccine by the end of the year. Egypt is one of the first countries in Africa to begin manufacturing coronavirus vaccines.
With a population of just over 100 million, Egypt is currently taking preventive steps to contain a third wave of COVID-19 infections. The Egyptian government has imposed some restrictive measures until May 21 that includes shortening opening hours and banning large gatherings.
The health ministry has officially confirmed reporting a total of 240,927 coronavirus cases including 14,091 deaths as of Wednesday. The real number of infections is expected to be much higher but is not reflected in government figures because of low testing rates and the exclusion of private test results.
