Egypt is set to begin the production of 60 million doses of the Chinese Sinovac coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine next month.
Mohammed Abdel Fattah, head of the central administration for preventive affairs at Egypt’s Ministry of Health made the announcement, stressing the goal is to ensure vaccination for large number of citizens as possible.
Fattah reiterated the prioritized categories of people to receive the vaccine include the elderly and those working in the medical sector followed by those working in the tourism and banking sector.
He indicated that large doses of vaccines would become available in the coming days and confirmed that Egypt was able to procure a variety of vaccines, including the Chinese Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines. It has also contracted to receive the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
Although there has been a significant increase in COVID-19 cases recently, medicines and oxygen tanks are available, and hospitals are ready to receive critical patients.
He said that a number of vaccination centers in the country have been opened to allow a large number of citizens to be inoculated at the same time.
Fattah called on citizens to sign up for the vaccine, noting that the demand among Egyptians to become vaccinated has increased, especially after the outbreak of the Indian variant.