Health Min.: Egypt obtains license for Chinese Sinopharm vaccine to treat Coronavirus

CAIRO - 3 January 2020: The Minister of Health, Hala Zayed, said that the situation of infections in Egypt, and the state’s plan to limit the increase in infections with the Coronavirus, and the provision of ventilators, medicines and oxygen, in addition to the state’s plan to manufacture Corona vaccines with international companies have been reviewed before the government.

She added, during a Skype intervention to the "Al-Hekaya" program, that coordination had been made with Sinopharma from the beginning of the electronic search, noting that the Chinese government issued, on Thursday, December 31, the commercial approval in favor of Egypt.

She continued, "We have contracted with Sinopharm, and we have obtained the approval of the Egyptian Medicines Authority to authorize the emergency for Sinopharma."

She indicated that the first shipment of Sinopharm entered the laboratories, where 4 types of medical analyzes were conducted on the vaccine in the Drug Authority laboratories approved by the Ministry of World Health, and all results proved the safety of the vaccine for circulation.

With regard to the "AstraZeneca" vaccine file, the Minister indicated that the first shipment of the vaccine will arrive to Egypt in the third or fourth week of January.

She added that the Ministry had obtained the approval of the cabinet and the Ministry of Justice for international arbitration in contracting this vaccine.

Zayed continued: "I thank all our colleagues in the Ministry of Health and the Egyptian Drug Authority for the great effort they have made."

The Health Ministry announced that Egypt registered 1,407 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, raising the total number of confirmed cases thusfar to 140,878.

In a statement, Spokesman for the Health Ministry Khaled Megahed said that the death toll in the country was raised to 7,741 after 54 patients died from the virus over the past 24 hours.

As many as 654 patients were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving necessary medical care, taking the number of recovered cases to 113,480 so far, the spokesman said.

In December, Health Minister officially announced that Egypt is facing the second wave of coronavirus.

The Cabinet, in response, announced further measures to curb the spread of the novel virus, including imposing an immediate fine on people not wearing face masks in closed places and public transportation. The decision comes into effect on Sunday January 3.

Cabinet spokesman Nader Saad, in remarks to media in December, said the ventilator use rose to 42 percent and that Egypt has prepared the same number of hospitals for quarantine as that it prepared during the peak of the first wave.