Egyptian Minister of Health and Population Hala Zayed expected Sunday two million doses of the Chinese Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine to be produced locally by the end of June.
The first shipment of the raw material of the vaccine will arrive Egypt by May 18, she added at a press briefing in Cairo.
Zayed revealed that Egypt would produce 40 million doses of the Chinese vaccine a year.
Soon after the first doses of the vaccine are produced, the minister said, they would be subject to assessment by the Egyptian Drug Agency.
She expected the two million doses to be produced in June to be available in the local market by
the end of July.
Zayed said her ministry moves ahead with completing the construction of the factory of the
national vaccine-making company, VACSERA, in 6th of October City.
The factory would be 100 per cent ready within weeks, the minister said.
She added that the factory would be ready to hammer out new partnerships in the production of
Sinovac vaccine and other vaccines in the coming period.
Zayed thanked China for supporting Egypt through the Covid-19 crisis.
She said her ministry is interested in pushing co-operation with Russia in the production of the Sputnik V vaccine locally.
Some local private companies have already started co-operating with the Russian side in this regard, Minister Zayed said.
She expected Egypt to become a Covid-19 vaccine-making hub for Africa in the future.
The minister noted that Covid-19 infections have been rising steadily, but in a stable manner in the past weeks.
She said the rise in infections has not been very high in the past three weeks.
Few citizens abided by preventive measures, especially during the Islamic month of Ramadan, Minister Zayed said.
She expected the infections to rise slightly in the coming period, noting that local hospitals still have room for additional patients.
We also have enough trained medical teams to deal with any increase in infections, the minister said.
