Egypt begins mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi announced the start of the campaign, and said that medical staff will be first in line to receive the jab.

Egypt received the first shipment of vaccines developed by Sinopharm last December.

Last week, the country’s minister of health said that Egypt would receive 40 million doses through the International Vaccine Alliance, a sufficient amount to vaccinate 20 million people, or 20 percent of Egypt’s population of 100 million.

The Ministry of Health and Population said that those who will receive the vaccine must be over the age of 18, and that pregnant women and children will not receive the jab.

The ministry also set the times and places for the first group of vaccine recipients.

Minister of Health Hala Zayed will hold a press conference at the Abu Khalifa Isolation Hospital in Ismailia Governorate to announce the vaccine distribution plan.

The ministry said that more than 36 centers in Egypt will distribute the vaccine to citizens, with the first group in line being medical staff in isolation, then chest and fever hospital patients, and then patients with chronic diseases and the elderly.

The ministry stressed that the vaccines have been thoroughly tested and are safe, and have undergone analysis that proved the Sinopharm vaccine 86 percent effective. The ministry added that the success of the vaccine in generating antibodies is 99 percent, and that it is totally effective in preventing moderate or major injury.

Symptoms that vaccine recipients may experience include pain, stiffness, itching, high temperature, headache, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, coughing, muscle pain, joint pain and convulsive attacks.

These symptoms generally do not require specific treatment and usually subside without a prescription or medication.

On Saturday, Egypt recorded a significant decrease in new coronavirus cases. It recorded 680 new cases, a noticeable decline from the day before, in which it recorded 748 new cases.

It also recorded 49 new deaths, a decrease compared with the 52 deaths it recorded the previous day.