
The Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) on Monday approved a locally produced COVID-19 vaccine for use in the country, the Al-Ahram newspaper reported.
The vaccine is produced by the Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac and the Egyptian Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA).
“This approval comes as part of the Egyptian state and President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi’s directives to provide a safe and effective vaccine to face the coronavirus pandemic,” an EDA statement said.
In a press conference on Monday, Minister of Health Hala Zayed announced that the ministry will start distributing the Sinovac/VACSERA vaccine to vaccination centers nationwide starting Tuesday.
Zayed said that VASCERA has already produced 15 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine and will continue to produce between 15 and 18.5 million doses per month with the aim of covering local and African needs.
She added that the state has increased the number of vaccination centers in Egypt to 657 in the past week, with 145 centers dedicated to putting travelers on the fast track to immunisation and the remaining 512 assigned to non-travellers.
Egypt’s vaccination campaign so far has included the use of the imported version of the Sinovac vaccine along with the Russian Sputnik V, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sinovak and Sinopharm vaccines.
Zayed also said that Egypt will vaccinate all 4.5 million of its state employees against COVID-19 in August and September as it seeks to accelerate vaccinations ahead of a likely fourth wave of infections.
She said that the country's infection rate is still low but started to increase last week and the upward curve is expected to continue for a while, with a significant increase expected in late September.
"It is important for the Egyptian government and the political leadership that we work to intensify vaccinations in the coming period," Zayed said, according to the Reuters news agency.
As part of the program, all workers in pre-university education, university employees and university students - a total of more than 5 million people - will be vaccinated before the start of the academic year in October, she said.
Egypt imposed strict measures at the start of the pandemic in March of 2020, closing its airspace and setting nightly curfews to combat the spread of the virus, but it has remained largely open since June 2020.
In May, Egypt announced it would be lifting the COVID-19 restrictions, including easing the early closure of shops and restaurants.