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Egypt said on Saturday that the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca would arrive on Sunday.
The Egyptian authority in charge of purchasing pharmaceutical products announced “the arrival of the first batch of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine tomorrow, Sunday, January 31, 2021,” without specifying the number of doses.
Last week, officials said they had ordered 20 million doses, according to Egyptian media.
Egypt, the most populous country in the Arab world with around 100 million inhabitants, has recorded nearly 165,000 cases of Covid-19, including more than 9,200 deaths.
But some health officials suggest that the reported infection rate is much lower than the actual figures.
Cairo began vaccinating health workers using injections of China’s Sinopharm on January 24, the first doses of which were administered in December.
On Friday, Health Minister Hala Zayed said 1,315 medical workers had received a first dose.
The jabs will be implemented alongside the elderly and people with chronic diseases.
AstraZeneca was initially praised for the speed of its vaccine development, but is now coming under fire for delays in delivery to the European Union due to production problems.
Germany’s Robert Koch Institute has also questioned the effectiveness of the jab among those 65 and older, citing gaps in the test data.
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