CAIRO - 19 September 2021: Egypt has received 546,400 doses of COVID-19 vaccine AstraZeneca from France through the COVAX facility, in cooperation with the UNICEF, announced the Egyptian Ministry of Health Hala Zayd in a statement on Sunday.
The shipment was given to Egypt in two batches on Friday and Saturday, said the Egyptian Ministry of Health Spokesperson Khaled Megahed in the statement.
The shipment of AstraZeneca vaccine will be distributed to the 781 vaccination centers nationwide, he added.
Egypt would receive 3.5 million doses of the COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccines this week, besides 1.6 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine this Friday, announced the Ministry in a statement on Sunday. These shipments will be provided in travel vaccination centers, the ministry added.
The number of people who have registered for COVID-19 vaccines so far reached 14.9 million citizens, said Megahed in media remarks to El Hikaya talk show on MBC Masr on Friday evening.
He added that 12 million messages have been sent to the citizens, saying that 13.4 million doses were administered to citizens so far.
On Friday, the Egyptian Ministry of Health and Population received a shipment of 20 refrigerators to store Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccines, said the World Health Organization (WHO) Egypt in a statement.
The shipment was delivered by UNICEF through the COVAX facility, the statement added, noting that the delivered refrigerators are the first shipment out of a total of 63 refrigerators that the ministry will receive in the coming period.
A vaccination promotion campaign was launched on Saturday Egyptian governorates of Kafr el Sheikh, Beni Suef and Sharqiya to encourage people to register in order to swiftly get vaccinated.
The 10-day campaign falls within the framework of the directives of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi.
In a statement on Saturday, Megahed said 17,345 people registered for getting the vaccination during the campaign in Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Fayyoum, Dakahlia, and Qaliobiya.
The campaign contributed to raising awareness of 18,000 people about the importance of the vaccination for protection from the coronavirus.
Egypt recorded on Saturday 637 coronavirus infections, and 16 deaths as well as 711 recoveries at isolation hospitals.
As such, the total figures became 296,276 infections, 16,951 deaths, and 249,793 recoveries.