Egypt's health ministry said in a statement that it detected 534 new coronavirus cases on Sunday, bringing the total infections toll nationwide since the outbreak of the pandemic last year to 169,640. The health ministry also reported 47 deaths, bringing the total fatalities from the virus to 9,651. Health Ministry Spokesperson Khaled Megahed said in the statement that 321 patients have been discharged from hospitals after recovering from the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of recoveries to 132,375. Egypt has started its vaccination campaign in January, administering the first dose of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine to the frontline healthcare workers at isolation and triage hospitals. It also plans to start vaccinating people over 60 starting mid-February. In a phone interview with MBC Masr satellite channel on Saturday, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi said the first segment of the country's vaccination priority list involves up to 30 to 35 million citizens. This comprising frontline healthcare workers, people with chronic diseases, and seniors. The figure requires about 70 million doses of the vaccine, El-Sisi said, while assuring that the fund for this amount is available. Earlier on the same day, the president welcomed an invitation for Egypt to join the African Vaccine Acquisition Task Team (AVATT) during the 34th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Assembly. The AU's AVATT serves as a component of the Africa vaccine strategy.
