EGYPT received another 300,000 doses of a coronavirus vaccine developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) in the early hours of Saturday, the health ministry said in a statement.
The third shipment from China of the Sinopharm vaccine brings the total doses delivered to Egypt to 650,000 since December. Some 600,000 of those were a gift from Beijing and the rest were sent by the UAE.
The North African country also got 50,000 doses of a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca in February.
Egypt expects to receive five million more doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX facility by the end of March and another three million doses before the end of May, the cabinet said in a statement on Wednesday.
COVAX is a global initiative aimed at providing an equitable distribution of vaccines.
Egypt began vaccinating frontline medical staff against COVID-19 on Jan. 24 and expanded its vaccination rollout to include the elderly and people with chronic diseases on March 4.
The health ministry expected 500,000 people to apply online for vaccination by the end of March from the start of its online registration program on Feb. 28. It is not clear how many people have been vaccinated so far.
Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country with more than 100 million people, has prepared 40 vaccination centres and plans to increase that number after the arrival of more vaccine.
As of Friday, Egypt had confirmed 194,127 coronavirus cases, including 11,512 deaths.
However, health officials say the real number is likely far higher because of the relatively low rate of testing and the exclusion of private test results.
