Egypt received on Sunday 2.3 million doses of the novel coronavirus vaccines, as part of the state's plan to expand and diversify COVID-19 vaccination. Egypt's Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research and acting Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said that the vaccine shipments included 1.5 million doses produced by Pfizer, 462,000 doses from Moderna, and 352,800 doses from AstraZeneca, The vaccine delivery was provided via the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) initiative, in cooperation with the International Alliance for Serums and Vaccines (GAVI). According to the Health Ministry, the shipment of vaccines arrived in Egypt in boxes designated for dry preservation and will be subject to analysis within 14 days, before being distributed to vaccination centres. Meanwhile, the Japanese government announced supporting Egypt with 700,260 doses of the Japanese-made AstraZeneca vaccine to Egypt via COVAX. The first cluster containing 352,800 doses arrived on 26 December, and additional 347,460 doses are expected to arrive on 30 December. This is the first donation of vaccines from Japan to the African continent, demonstrating Japan's close partnership with Egypt to help support its response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the friendship between the peoples of Japan and Egypt. Japan has supported Egypt's efforts to tackle this pandemic by providing more than $250m so far. In addition to this made-in-Japan vaccine donation, Tokyo has provided Japanese-made medical equipment to protect as many people as possible including the most vulnerable against the virus.
