Egypt started its vaccination campaign in January this year and is aiming to immunise 40 percent of its 102-million population by the end of 2021.

The country is currently administering seven vaccines — Sputnik V, Sinopharm, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Sinovac, Pfizer, and Moderna — in nearly 1,000 fixed vaccination centres nationwide.

Egypt’s Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly reaffirmed during the meeting that all citizens will be banned from entering any government institution without being vaccinated starting December.

Furthermore, since 15 November, Egypt has been barring university students and state employees from entering their campuses and workplaces without being vaccinated at least with one dose.

Madbouly’s remarks came one day after Egypt’s parliament approved a new law to fight pandemics and epidemics by allowing the premier to impose emergency measures or declare a state of pandemic emergency to preserve the health and lives of citizens.

Meanwhile, Abdel-Ghaffar highlighted the ‘Together, We are Assured’ campaign, which offers 14 walk-in vaccination centres in metro stations, has been successful so far in inoculating 482 thousand citizens throughout the 27 governorates.

There are plans to expand the campaign to cover all three lines of the Cairo underground metro, Abdel-Ghaffar said.

Egypt — which is currently witnessing the peak of its fourth wave of the pandemic — has so far recorded 345,848 COVID-19 cases, including 19,636 deaths and 288,879 recoveries.