Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi has directed action to remove any financial hurdles facing the fight against coronavirus, Presidential Adviser for Health Affairs Mohamed Awad Tag El-Din said on Monday.

In statements to Extra News, Tag El-Din said Sisi reiterated the necessity of providing all necessary financial allocations for medical, health or preventive facilities, along with medical supplies to help mitigate the spread of the virus.

All facilitation to get the coronavirus shots will be made, Tag El-Din said. He added that new vaccination places would be announced to ease the process for the elderly, who could face problems in recording online.

Tag El-Din said Egypt is currently seeking to produce coronavirus vaccines locally to cover domestic needs.

He added that Egypt could be a base for supplying other friendly countries, especially in Africa and the Middle East region, with their needs of the vaccines.

The presidential adviser also noted that the coronavirus crisis has proven that the presence of powerful health and humanitarian entities serve the sector of vaccines. He noted that this sector has become a very important national need.

Egypt is currently in the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic and there should be more collaboration to curb the virus and its impact on society, Tag El-Din said.

Egypt has started its vaccination campaign in January starting with medical workers and then started to vaccinate the elderly and people suffering from chronic diseases. The vaccines provided in the country so far are Sinopharm and AstraZeneca.

In mid-April, head of the preventive healthcare sector at the health ministry said 320,000 Egyptians have been vaccinated against coronavirus as part of the national campaign.

Egypt has reported a total of 216,334 coronavirus cases and 12,738 related deaths since the start of the pandemic, according to latest official figures released by the Ministry of Health early on Monday.