In a recent press conference by Hala Zayed, Egypt’s Minister of Health, the Minister said that Egypt has signed a contract with Russia to produce its Sputnik V Covid vaccine in Egypt.
The Russian vaccine, Dr Zayed said, has been approved by Egypt’s health board, and will be produced by the country’s vaccine and sera producer VACSERA in a new production line. It will also be produced by the private Egyptian pharmaceutical firm Minapharm Pharmaceuticals, to the tune of 40 million doses a year. Production is scheduled for the third quarter of 2021.
Dr Zayed reminded that earlier this month Egypt had signed with China an agreement to produce 40 million dozes a year of the Chinese vaccine Sinovac at VACSERA.
The Minister said that Egypt has agreed with a number of countries to set up a health code that would make it possible to access vaccination data for travellers instead of requiring them to produce vaccination certificates or negative pcr test results. She said that the Health Ministry is completing the vaccination of all workers in the tourism and related sectors in the governorates of the Red Sea and South Sinai by the end of the running week.
Dr Zayed offered her condolences to the 115 doctors who lost their lives while on duty fighting the covid-19 pandemic. She said a fund had created to compensate their families.
The Health Minister thanked all medical staff for their outstanding efforts, also the professional syndicates of nurses, dentists, pharmacists, and physiotherapists for their close coordination with the Ministry to help in the treatment of covid-19 patients in their homes, and in the vaccination process.
Watani International
27 April 2021