Egypt is set to receive its first set of the COVID-10 vaccine developed by Anglo-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca on Sunday (today).
According to the Egyptian authority in charge of the acquisition of the procurement of pharmaceuticals announced on Saturday, “the arrival of the first batch of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine tomorrow, Sunday January 31, 2021”, without specifying the number of doses, AFP reported.
Officials had last week said they had ordered 20 million doses, according to Egyptian media.
Data shows that Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country with around 100 million people, has recorded nearly 165,000 Covid-19 cases, including more than 9,200 deaths.
However, some health officials are of the view that the reported infection rate is much lower than the actual figures.
The country’s capital city, Cairo started vaccinating healthcare workers using China’s Sinopharm jabs on January 24, the first doses of which were delivered in December.
Health Minister, Hala Zayed on Friday, said that 1,315 medical workers had received the first dose.
Jabs will be made available next to the elderly and people with chronic health conditions.
AstraZeneca was initially praised for the speed of its vaccine development, but is now being criticised for delays in delivery to the European Union due to production problems.