Egypt's drug regulator (EDA) has granted emergency use approval for the Sinovac/VACSERA COVID-19 vaccine – the first locally produced vaccine to be greenlit for use in the country, the government announced on Monday. The manufacturing of Sinovac vaccine doses is part of an agreement reached between the Egyptian Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA) and China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd. "This approval comes as part of the Egyptian state and President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's directives to provide a safe and effective vaccine to face the coronavirus pandemic," a statement by the Egyptian Drug Authority (EDA) read. Egyptian Minister of Health Hala Zayed announced in a press conference on Monday that the ministry will start the distribution of the Sinovac/VACSERA vaccine across the vaccination centres nationwide starting Tuesday. VASCERA has already manufactured 15 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine and will continue to produce between 15 and 18.5 million doses per month with the aim of covering local and African needs, Zayed said. She added that the country has increased the number of vaccination centres nationwide to 657 in the past week, with 145 centres dedicated to putting travellers on the fast track to immunisation and the remaining 512 assigned to non-travellers. To date, Egypt's vaccination campaign has comprised the use of the imported version of the Sinovac vaccine as well as the Sputnik V, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sinovak, and Sinopharm vaccines. According to the minister, 7.5 million Egyptians have been vaccinated out of the 10 million that have registered for the jabs on the Ministry's website.
