Egypt reports 782 new coronavirus cases, 47 fatalities in 24 hours

CAIRO - 8 Juny 2020: The Health Ministry said Monday night that 782 new coronavirus cases were detected, upping the total number of confirmed cases since the outbreak in the country began to 268,754.

In a statement, Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said 47 patients have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 15,399.

As many as 677 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 197,281 so far, the spokesman said.

The Egyptian Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA) signed with Sinovac in April two agreements that allow Egypt to locally manufacture the vaccine.

VACSERA will manufacture the final product using the ready-made product provided by Sinovac.

The first agreement is related to the transfer of technology required to manufacture the vaccine doses, a Cabinet statement read. Under the agreement, Sinovac will grant VACSERA a limited license to use the manufacturing technology.

VACSERA will manufacture the vaccine inside the company’s production facilities.

The second agreement stipulates that Sinovac secures for Egypt all technical information related to the company’s vaccine and provides technical assistance.

Technical assistance will include examining VACSERA’s factories and testing the final product and means of manufacturing.

Last month, Egypt has received its first batch of the raw materials required to produce the Sinovac vaccine.

Zayed in a press conference said VACSERA will produce 40 million Sinovac doses in the first year.

Egypt is expected to produce the first batch of Sinovac doses by June 15, said Zayed on Sunday.