Egypt to Distribute Locally Produced COVID-19 Vaccine This Week

Egypt’s Minister of Health and Population Hala Zayed announced that Egypt will begin distributing its locally produced doses of the Sinovac coronavirus vaccine this week, and will manufacture between 15 and 18.5 million doses per month to meet the rising COVID-19 infections in the country.

Minister Hala Zayed noted that a significant increase is expected in late September, which is why Egypt is planning to vaccinate all 4.5 million of its state employees in August and September before the rise of infections during the fourth wave.

The Egyptian Drug Authority on Monday approved an emergency use license for the locally produced VACSERA-Sinovac vaccines, it said in a statement.

On Moday, Minister of Health Hala Zayed announced that the first COVID-19 infection from the Delta variant was discovered in Egypt in mid-July, which was a 35-year-old woman who did not need hospitalization. The delta variant was also detected among other Egyptians but none were hospitalized because they had mild symptoms.

Last week, Presidential Adviser for Health Dr. Awad Tag El-Din announced that vaccination will become mandatory in all public institutions in Egypt, which comes in light of warnings that Egypt may be on the brink of a fourth COVID-19 wave if infections continue to rise.

This also comes after Health Minister Hala Zayed’s announcement that Egypt plans to vaccinate 800,000 individuals per day, with an objective to reach 35.353 million vaccinated individuals.

Currently, there are 580 vaccination centers across the country, 134 of which are for travelers, with plans to increase it to 800 vaccine centres running by the end of August.