Egypt to produce 60m doses of Sinovac vaccine from next month

CAIRO: Egypt is set to begin the production of 60 million doses of the Chinese Sinovac coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine next month.
The announcement was made by Mohammed Abdel Fattah, head of the central administration for preventive affairs at Egypt’s Ministry of Health. The health official stressed that the goal was to ensure vaccination for as large a number of citizens as possible.
In televised statements, Fattah said that the elderly and those working in the medical sector would be among the prioritized categories of people to receive the vaccine, followed by those working in the tourism and banking sector.
He indicated that large doses of vaccines would become available in the coming days and confirmed that Egypt was able to procure a variety of vaccines, including the Chinese Sinovac and AstraZeneca vaccines. It has also contracted to receive the Russian Sputnik V vaccine.
Fattah said although there has been a significant increase in COVID-19 cases recently, medicines and oxygen tanks were available, and hospitals were ready to receive critical patients.
He said that a number of vaccination centers in the country had been opened that would allow a large number of citizens to be inoculated at the same time.
The vaccine center in the area of the Cairo International Fair accepts citizens from the governorates of Cairo, Giza and Al-Qalioubiya. Its daily capacity reaches 10,000 people, and it includes 96 clinics and a medical team. 
Fattah called on citizens to sign up for the vaccine, noting that the demand among Egyptians to become vaccinated has increased, especially after the outbreak of the Indian variant.
Meanwhile, the health ministry said on Saturday it will require all visitors arriving from “countries where variants of the virus have appeared” to take a rapid COVID-19 test upon arrival.
The statement did not specify the countries from which passengers would take the 15-minute DNA test, called ID NOW.
Egypt’s new coronavirus cases have been steadily rising in recent weeks. On Saturday it reported 1,125 new cases and 65 deaths, although experts say that reflects only a fraction of total cases.
In a statement on Saturday, Egypt’s tourism ministry clarified that restaurants and coffee shops attached to hotels were exempt from a recent decree that such outlets as well as malls and stores would close at 9 p.m. local time (GMT +2) in order to not affect tourism.
(With Reuters)