Large quantity of coronavirus vaccine to arrive in Egypt within days: health official

CAIRO – 24 March 2021: Head of the central administration for preventive medicine affairs at the Ministry of Health Mohamed Abdel Fattah affirmed that a large quantity of coronavirus vaccine will arrive in Egypt within the next few days.

This comes as Health Minister Hala Zayed said Egypt is expected to receive 5 million AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine doses by the end of this month and another 3 million doses by May.

In remarks to CBC, Abdel Fattah said 33 centers have been inaugurated in Cairo for citizens to receive the vaccine.

He said that Zayed issued directives to increase the number of coronavirus vaccine centers nationwide, adding that 138 centers have been already allocated.

Abdel Fattah noted that 500,000 citizens have registered on the designated website to receive the coronavirus vaccine.

Egypt has so far obtained 650,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine.

It also received its first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine (50,000 doses) last month.

The country started its vaccination campaign in January, providing vaccine so far to thousands of medical workers, people suffering from chronic diseases and elderly.