PM: President Sisi supports efforts to localize vaccine industry in Egypt

CAIRO - 1 November 2021: Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli said on Sunday President Abdel Fattah El Sisi largely supports localizing the vaccine industry in Egypt and directs to accelerate the rates of vaccinating citizens.

Madbouli was speaking during his meeting with Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and acting Minister of Health Khaled Abdel Ghaffar to follow up on the state's efforts to vaccinate citizens.

Abdel Ghaffar noted that the number of the vaccination centers reached 1,079 nationwide, pointing out more mobile centers will be available at malls, metro stations, and train stations in the coming period.

About 72 million doses of the vaccine had been received, 38 million of which had been administered, the minister said, noting about 34 million doses are available.

Nearly 26 million additional doses will be received in the coming period, he added.

During the meeting, the minister reviewed the occupancy rate of the Health Ministry's hospitals across the country and presidential health initiatives. 

Egypt’s Health Ministry said that 933 new coronavirus cases were detected, upping the total number of confirmed cases reported in the country since the beginning of the outbreak to 331,017.

In a statement, Sunday Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said 59 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 18,651.

As many as 644 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 278,267 so far, the spokesman said

Consultant to the President for Health and Preventive Affairs Awad Tag al-Din stated Sunday in a phone-in that Egypt has spent $400 million on anti-COVID-19 vaccines.

Tag el-Din added that those included Chinese vaccines, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson. That is in addition to the doses acquired through Covax, and as donations from other countries.

The official noted that there is a target to make 40 million adults fully vaccinated. The figure now stands at 25 million. As for the total of doses injected into citizens, the number is 35 million.  

On Oct. 25, the Ministry announced receiving the third shipment of Johnson & Johnson vaccine including 1,058,400 million doses.

This comes within the framework of the mechanism of the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT) in cooperation with the African Export–Import Bank as part of the state's plan on diversity and expansion in providing anti-coronavirus vaccine.

Megahed asserted the importance of continuous cooperation with the international organizations to stand against the coronavirus pandemic and provide the vaccine for the citizens.