[ad_1]
Egypt approved the use of a Covid-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm and its launch will begin at the end of January, the health minister said.
“The Egyptian pharmaceutical authority approved the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine on Saturday,” Hala Zayed said Saturday night on local channel MBC Masr.
The first batch of the vaccine was delivered in December, and more doses are expected this month.
“The second shipment of this vaccine should arrive in the second or third week of January, and as soon as it arrives, we will begin vaccinations,” said the minister.
Each batch of the vaccine consists of 50,000 doses, and the ministry has announced that the first group to receive it will be medical workers.
Zayed said Egypt plans to buy 40 million doses of the Sinopharm jab.
Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world with around 100 million inhabitants, has recorded more than 140,000 cases of the Covid-19 disease, including 7,800 deaths.
After a brief hiatus, the number of infections increased dramatically in late 2020, from around 100 new confirmed cases per day in October to about 1,400 daily cases today.
Sinopharm announced Wednesday that one of its vaccines, to be distributed in China, was 79% effective.
The efficacy of the jabs is lower than that of the vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, both with an effectiveness greater than 90%.
A jab developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford has been shown to be 70% effective with one dose and 100% effective with two.
Egypt will also receive the AstraZeneca / Oxford vaccine in the third or fourth week of January, according to Zayed, adding that “a contract was being finalized.”
Negotiations with Pfizer “are also underway,” he added.
– AFP
