Egypt receives 175K Russian Sputnik V vaccine doses

CAIRO – 7 August 2021: Cairo received on Saturday 175,000 doses of the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine as part of the country’s vaccination campaign, a source at the ministry told Egypt Today.

The doses were sent to the stores of the Egyptian Authority for Unified Procurement and samples were drawn from them for analysis in the laboratories of the Egyptian Drug Authority, the source said.

The doses will be available soon in the vaccination centers. The Sputnik v vaccine is two doses, 28 days apart, the source affirmed.

 Egypt will receive 148.2 million doses of coronavirus vaccine between August and the year end, Health Minister Hala Zayed said last month.

The doses will be sufficient to inoculate 83.7 million citizens, the minister said during the weekly cabinet meeting with Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouli at the cabinet headquarters in new Alamein city.

Egypt’s Health Minister Hala Zayed announced Wednesday finalizing all needed documents as a final step to receive the shipment of two Covid-19 vaccines [AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson], which will arrive in Egypt next week.

Once received, the vaccines will be distributed to all vaccination centers nationwide, Spokesman for the Ministry Khaled Megahed said.

He added that the shipment of AstraZeneca vaccine was agreed upon after cooperation with COVAX facility, the WHO and UNICEF.

The Johnson & Johnson shipment came after cooperation with the African Union (AU), he said, adding that Egypt will further receive a shipment of Pfizer vaccine this month, according to him.

Moreover, a million doses of Sinovac vaccine will be distributed within the coming couple of weeks, Megahed said.

According to the spokesman, 126 centers have been allocated to vaccinate those willing to travel abroad.