Minister of Health and Population Hala Zayed on Sunday began an inspection tour of the production lines for the Holding Company for Biological Preparations and Vaccines (VACSERA), ensuring it is ready to manufacture the Sinovac vaccine in Egypt.
Zayed will hold a press conference following the inspection tour to announce further details.
She added that Egypt has been waiting for the raw material to produce the Sinovac vaccine, estimated at two million doses as a first step in the local production of vaccines.
Egypt’s Health Ministry on Sunday confirmed 1,132 new coronavirus cases, bringing the country’s total number of confirmed cases up to 236,272 ministry spokesperson Khaled Megahed announced.
The total number of COVID-19-related deaths has now reached 13,845 nationwide, after the ministry announced 66 deaths.
And 435 patients were discharged from quarantine at isolation hospitals, raising Egypt’s total number of fully-recovered cases to 176,363.
Egyptian government imposed in March strict precautionary measures to limit the outbreak of coronavirus, which included setting curfews, banning large gatherings, and closing restaurants, theaters, and cinemas.
Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population in Egypt said late April that none of the vaccines being used in its vaccination campaign require a third dosage.
The Undersecretary of the ministry for Preventive Medicine Affairs Mohamed Abdel-Fattah explained that the Sinopharm vaccine is two doses with 21 days in between, AstraZeneca is two doses with 12 weeks inbetween, and the only one with a single dose is the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The vaccines used in the drive are safe and effective, he assured, and implored all citizens to get vaccinated as soon as possible.
All vaccines that have received emergency approval are safe and have gone through all review processes, he explained. Through the Egyptian Drug Authority, Egypt has granted five vaccines an emergency license, he said, all of which have been safely approved.
