Egypt seeks to produce covid-19 vaccines locally via the Egyptian pharmaceutical companies, presidential adviser for health affairs Mohamed Awad Tag El-Din has said, amid the high pressure on vaccines manufacturing companies. Egypt has reserved 100 million doses of the approved vaccines through agreements, only a 50,000 dose batch from Sinopharm vaccines has been delivered while another 50,000 does batch from AstraZeneca on its way to the country. The country still seeks to diversify the sources of vaccines as manufacturing companies are unable to meet the required amounts as scheduled, the Presidential Adviser told the media late Saturday. "Vaccine manufacturers can't fulfill the required amounts of doses on schedule … neither for us nor for others … as large quantities have been reserved by countries of origin," Tag El-Din added. He noted that the country is proceeding its vaccination campaign according to its priority list that starts with the frontline healthcare workers at coronavirus isolation and triage hospitals, followed by kidney failure and cancer patients, then the elderly. Egypt has vaccinated hundreds of medical staffers nationwide as a first step in the country's vaccination campaign, which kicked off last Sunday. It is currently awaiting new deliveries of coronavirus vaccines to expand the vaccinations' access to more categories, especially to top priority groups. A total of 165,418 coronavirus infections have been registered in Egypt, including 9,263 fatalities, 129,293 recoveries.
