Egypt detected first case of COVID’s delta-plus variant in July: Health Minster

CAIRO – 23 August 2021: Health Minster Hala Zayed said, Monday that one case for delta-plus variant had been detected in Egypt last July.

She added during a press conference that the case was for a woman with mild symptoms that did not require ant hospitalization or special medical care.

She also noted that delta-plus variant for COVID-19 was not proven to be the most severe; however, it is the fastest spreading.

Zayed also noted that all vaccines were proven to be affective against the delta-plus variant.

 Zayed also said, that 15 million doses of the locally-manufactured Sinovac vaccine will be distributed to medical centers all over the country starting, Tuesday.

She added that this locally-manufactured vaccine reduces the rate of hospitalization of the patient by 90 percent.

The President advisor for health and prevention affairs Mohamed Awad Taj El-Din said Monday that Egypt will be receiving 25 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine over the coming four months.

He added in a statement to Sada al Balad news channel, Monday, that Egypt had negotiations with multiple sources to obtain the vaccine, which accordingly provided a large quantity of it.

He noted that the government is aiming to vaccinate 40 million citizens during the coming period.

The Health Ministry said Sunday night that 184 new coronavirus cases were detected, upping the total number of confirmed cases since the outbreak in the country began to 286,352.

In a statement, Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said eight patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 16,671.

As many as 229 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 235,864 so far, the spokesman said.