Egypt's Ministry of Health and Population has announced that workers in the tourism sector will receive the vaccine against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) in the next few days. Ministry spokesperson Khaled Mogahed said, on Sunday, that this move comes in light of the state's measures for safe coexistence with the virus. He also confirmed the ministry's keenness to balance between continuing its economic activities and maintaining the health of citizens. Meanwhile, Minister of Health and Population Hala Zayed announced that 148,987 medical personnel and citizens in eligible groups have received the vaccine against the coronavirus. Zayed's remarks came during her meeting, on Saturday, with the directors of vaccination centres nationwide, to follow up on the progress of Egypt's vaccination programme. She announced that there will be an increase in the number of vaccine centres to 200, including 40 centres in Cairo Governorate. This will bring the total number of vaccination centres to 339 centres nationwide. Zayed confirmed that the Ministry of Health and Population will double the number of medical teams at vaccination centres nationwide, in addition to increasing the number of working hours. The centres will be open between 9am and 9pm everyday to citizens taking the vaccine. Mogahed asserted that Egypt received 854,400 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine last Wednesday, in addition to 50,000 doses of the same vaccine that were received last January. He explained that Egypt had recently received 680,000 doses of the Chinese-manufactured Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine. He also said that Egypt is expected to receive about 4.5 million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in May.
