Egypt reported 686 new coronavirus cases on Sunday bringing the total infection tally to 200,050 since the outbreak began in February. The health ministry also reported 37 new deaths, bringing the total number of deaths from the virus to 11,882. The statement said that 533 patients have been discharged after recovering from the virus, bringing the total number of recoveries to 153,175. Egypt started its vaccination campaign in January with Sinopharm and AstraZeneca vaccines. So far, it has received 650,000 Sinopharm doses from China and 50,000 AstraZeneca doses from India. Egypt awaits millions of AstraZeneca doses to arrive to the country by the end of this month and during the coming two months. Egypt's Health Minister Hala Zayed announced on Sunday that she discussed with the Chinese ambassador to Cairo speeding up the procedures to buy quantities of coronavirus vaccine from "Sinopharm" In a telephone call with Zayed, ambassador Liao Liqiang expressed readiness of his country to send a new shipment of the Sinopharm vaccine in the upcoming days to Egypt as a gift, the Egyptian health ministry said. During the call the ambassador stated that a delegation of Chinese experts will come to Egypt to examine the production lines of the only producer of vaccines & sera in Egypt (VACSERA). The statement added that the World Health Organization has praised VACSERA for its readiness to produce coronavirus vaccine doses. Last week, Zayed announced in a joint statement with Liqiang that Egypt was going to produce Sinovac coronavirus vaccine.
