Egypt's Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and the acting Minister of Health and Population, Khaled Abdel Ghaffar, held a meeting with leading officials of the ministry to follow up on the progress of the vaccination process against the coronavirus. During the meeting, the minister followed up on the executive steps to start vaccinating citizens with the third dose of the coronavirus vaccine for medical workers, the elderly and those with chronic diseases, as well as following up on the vaccination of children from 12 to 15 years old, according to a statement from the Health Ministry on Sunday. He stressed the necessity of the daily follow-up reports on the vaccination process, and coordination with directorates of the Ministry of Health in the governorates to increase the number of citizen service centers in order to facilitate and remove the obstacles that citizens may face with regard to receiving vaccinations. Additionally, the minister ordered the formation of a scientific committee aimed at educating citizens about the importance of receiving the coronavirus vaccines, especially in the governorates with the lowest rates of vaccination, pointing out that vaccines are the first wall of protection against infection with the coronavirus and reducing the death rate. Moreover, Abdel Ghaffar announced the receipt of 600,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines, pointing out that Egypt is scheduled to receive 3 million and 900,000 doses of the "AstraZeneca" vaccine by the end of December. Furthermore, the minister followed up on the preparations for the national campaign for polio vaccination, which will be launched on 19 December for 4 days, and aim to vaccinate 16.5 million children through 45,000 teams, comprising 90,000 members.
