Egypt has received an additional 1 766 400 COVID-19 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in a third batch of vaccines delivered via the COVAX Facility.
Egypt had scaled up its vaccination rates in the past few months, opening many vaccination centres across the country that have the capacity to vaccinate thousands of people per day.
UNICEF Representative in Egypt, Jeremy Hopkins stated that the country needs to reach 70% of the population with vaccination as a critical milestone in halting the pandemic.
He noted that the delivery is important for Egypt as it plans to increase momentum for the deployment of the vaccine nationwide, accompanied by an increase in demand from people in Egypt.
While global vaccine demand has exceeded supply, UNICEF, with support of its donors has continued to work hard to support the relentless efforts of the Ministry of Health and Population to contain the pandemic and, in collaboration with a broad range of partners, to mitigate its impact on children who are often hardest hit,” he added. This makes it the third shipment of COVAX vaccines delivered to Egypt.