China to grant Egypt 300,000 coronavirus vaccine doses soon: amb.

CAIRO – 5 February 2021: China will soon grant Egypt 300,000 coronavirus vaccine doses, sufficient for 150,000 persons, Chinese Ambassador to Cairo Liao Liqiang said on Thursday evening.

Egypt has already received three batches of the vaccine developed by China’s Sinopharm since December, the latest of which was yesterday.

“This comes within the framework of deepening traditional bilateral friendship and enhancing cooperation between the two countries in the face of the pandemic,” Liqiang said.

Egypt has started its vaccination campaign in January, starting with the medical teams at quarantine hospitals, for being on top of priority groups in terms of vaccination.

Late in January, Egypt received 50,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the second batch to be delivered to the country after the China’s Sinopharm batch in December.

Speaking before the House of Representatives on Thursday, Zayed said that Egypt received on that day the third batch of the Chinese vaccine.

Zayed said in statements to MBC channel Sunday, that the Ministry will start vaccinating the elderly along with people with chronic diseases against COVID, in mid-February.

Daily brief

The Egyptian Ministry of Health announced in a statement that 532 new coronavirus cases were detected on Thursday, upping the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 168,057.

Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said 52 coronavirus-linked deaths were registered over the past 24 hours, raising the overall death toll to 9,512 since the outset of the pandemic.

As many as 299 cases were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving the necessary medical care, taking the total number of recovered cases so far to 131,211, the spokesman added.