The rolling out of a first batch of one million locally-manufactured anti-coronavirus vaccine doses last week was indeed a highly significant from national, regional and international perspectives. First and foremost, it signaled Egypt’s acquisition of a considerable capacity to produce vaccines at its national plants, in effect reflecting the building of such an efficient infrastructure that can promote the country’s potential to ensure the availability of vaccines.
Needless to say, vaccines are globally used to immunise humans against the risk of catching certain diseases and are even considered life-savers in a number of cases. Polio, diphtheria, tetanus, measles and some influenza strains are among twenty or so diseases that demand vaccination. Under the circumstances, Covid-19 is the latest new comer to the group of diseases that require vaccination especially in the light of the fact that this virus had been totally unknown before its global outbreak early last year. Establishing a capacity to provide populations with duly tested vaccines should, therefore, be considered a national priority especially given that vaccinating a single individual against dangerous diseases in the foremost of which is Convid-19 now has wider positive implications. For vaccination practically means that all those who come in contact with a vaccinated person will be highly safe against the risk of contracting the same disease; hence the observation that individual vaccination is also useful in widening the scope of immunity for a larger number of members of the public.
Building and putting in action a capacity to manufacture vaccines locally, therefore, represents a matter of national security, as Prime Minister Dr Moustafa Madbouli stressed in statements to a press conference he gave following an inspection tour of the VACSERA factory to mark the rolling out of the first one million doses of an anti-Covid-19 vaccine in Egypt last week. Noting that building such a capacity came in pursuance of President Sisi’s directives to make anti-coronavirus vaccines available to citizens, the prime minister revealed that the government aims to complete offering vaccines to as many as 40 million citizens by the end of this year. Health minister Dr. Hala Zayed and senior VACSERA officials who accompanied Dr Madbouli during the tour emphasised that efforts are under way to boost the VACSERA complex’s productivity in way that fulfills the local demand and promotes the country’s potential to evolve into a hub for the manufacturing and export of anti-coronavirus vaccines.
Egypt’s success in manufacturing this first batch of one million doses of the anti-corona vaccines and the state’s drive to ensure that 40 million citizens would have been vaccinated by the time this year comes to a close have gained World Health Organisation (WHO) commendation and acknowledgement. In a statement released following the completion of Egypt’s manufacturing of one million doses of the vaccine, WHO hailed the accomplishment as matching the world standard it set for countries to observe and which calls for vaccinating some 40% of their respective populations by the end of this year. And by observing this standard in addition to achieving self-reliance in the production of anti-corona vaccines, Egypt is in fact concomitantly contributing to the invigoration of the world’s overall effort to bring the pandemic under plausible control.
