Egypt detects 874 new COVID-19 infections with 42 fatalities on Saturday

CAIRO - 17 October 2021: The Health Ministry said Saturday night that 874 new coronavirus cases were detected, upping the total number of infections since the outbreak in the country to 317,585.

In a statement, Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said 42 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 17,926.

As many as 855 patients were discharged from hospitals after receiving medical care, taking the number of recoveries to 268,210, the spokesman added.

Cairo International Airport received on Oct. 17 totally 1,611,090 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine provided by the US government.

The shipment was provided through COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) in cooperation with the Vaccine Alliance (Gavi) as part of the Egyptian state’s efforts to diversify and expand the use of vaccines.

Health Ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said the vaccine doses will be examined by the Egyptian Drug Authority before being distributed to 1,100 vaccination centers nationwide within 14 days at most.

Egypt received late in September its first shipment of the Pfizer vaccine comprising 1,612,260 doses.