CAIRO: China has gifted 300,000 Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine doses to Egypt, Health Minister Hala Zayed said on Tuesday, after the batch arrived in Cairo.
“The health ministry received at the Cairo airport a batch of 300,000 doses of the vaccine of Chinese company Sinopharm, delivered as a gift from China within the framework of strong relationship between the two countries,” Zayed said.
The ministry also announced that Egyptians will be able to electronically register for COVID-19 vaccination in the coming days. Elderly people and those with chronic diseases will be prioritized in the campaign, which has so far focused on health workers.
In December, the Arab republic received 50,000 gifted Sinopharm doses from the United Arab Emirates. Earlier, some 3,000 Egyptian volunteers took part in a clinical trial for the vaccine.
In total, Egypt has secured 100 million doses of various coronavirus vaccines, the health minister said last week.
The country has so far confirmed over 178,000 COVID-19 cases, including more than 10,000 deaths.(Sputnik)