500K education workers registered in Egypt to receive COVID vaccine ahead of academic year

CAIRO – 27 August 2021: Half a million workers at the Ministry of Education have registered their names to receive the Coronavirus vaccine before studies begin at schools and universities.

A section was newly added to the website of the Ministry of Health dedicated for employees at Ministry of Education, who are required to be vaccinated during the coming period before the school year begins, said Aysam Salah el-Din, advisor to Minister of Health for Information Technology.

Salah el-Din called on workers at the Ministry of Education to register until September to receive the vaccination.

"The vaccine is now being manufactured in Egypt, and we produce hundreds of thousands per day, which help us to vaccinate all those numbers quickly and regularly, and the worker in the education sector can issue a secure vaccination certificate, in addition to the presence of a mobile application through which the vaccination data is shown,” he said.

He continued, "There is also a section for university workers and another for university students, where they choose the governorate in which they wish to obtain the vaccination, and chooses the university to which they belong.”

Vaccinating teachers a priority

Since a national vaccination campaigns against COVID started, senior citizens, medical staff and those suffering from chronic diseases were prioritized. Now there is also a priority to vaccination school teachers as well as university students and faculty staff.

President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi ordered the vaccination of all university and school staff and students against COVID-19 ahead of the new academic year.

Public schools are set to begin on October 9, while international school students are due back on September 12.

Minister of Health and Population indicated in a Cabinet meeting Thursday that the number of public employees who have been vaccinated is 1.3 million (17.3%) out of approximately 7.5 million.

The minister noted that the number of vaccination centers was raised last week from 580 to 678, and that in just 72 hours, the number of applications on travel vaccination hiked from 260,000 to 760,000.

The vaccines that have been available in Egypt are AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Sinopharm, Sputnic V, and Johnson and Johnson.