25K Egyptian citizens receive coronavirus vaccine on Thursday

CAIRO – 2 April 2021: Egypt’s Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said 25,000 citizens have received the coronavirus vaccine on Thursday, as part of the country’s vaccination campaign that has kicked off in January.

Megahed said Thursday had the largest turnout in terms of vaccination, adding that the ministry seeks to increase the vaccination centers due to the large turnout by citizens and health workers.

Egypt so far has 139 coronavirus vaccination centers nationwide, Megahed said.

To date, Egypt has reported 202,843 coronavirus cases and 12,041 deaths.

Egypt received on Thursday early morning 845,400 AstraZeneca vaccine doses through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX), the Health Ministry announced.

This comes as part of 40 million doses set to reach Egypt in succession through COVAX, co-led by the Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Egypt has started its vaccination campaign in January, starting with the medical teams at quarantine hospitals, for being on top of priority groups in terms of vaccination.

It has also started vaccination people suffering from chronic diseases and the elderly.

Late in January, Egypt received its first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine, consisting of 50,000 doses, from India. The country has so far also obtained 650,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine,

The registration to get the vaccine is done either online (http://mohpegypt.com) or at certain health facilities. Afterwards, citizens get informed about the time and place where they will receive the vaccine.

The eligible citizens have to take two shots of the Sinopharm vaccine (21 days apart) and four weeks apart for the AstraZeneca vaccine.