The ministry is studying lowering the vaccination age for children using the Pfizer vaccine following a statement by the World Health Organization (WHO) that mRNA vaccines can be used to safely vaccinate children five years and older, Abdel-Ghaffar said.

Egypt is currently using the Pfizer vaccine to inoculate youngsters aged 12 to 18.

On Saturday, Egypt received a new shipment of 1.8 million Pfizer vaccines donated by the United States via the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) programme and the Vaccine Alliance.

The new shipment comes from a 500 million Pfizer vaccine inventory that the US is distributing to African Union countries through COVAX.

Egypt has obtained a total of 132 million vaccines, administering 36.6 million as first doses and 24.1 million as second doses, according to acting Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar.

Abdel-Ghaffar also announced recently that 489,700 booster shots have been administered, bringing the total number of jabs administered to the public to 61.3 million.