Higher Education Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar, also acting health minister, will make the announcement in a press conference at the National Research Centre in Giza’s Dokki.

Abdel-Ghaffar discussed Egypt’s plan to start clinical trials for the Egyptian vaccine with Naeema Al-Gasseer, the World Health Organisation’s representative in Egypt, earlier this month.

News media earlier this year reported on Egypt’s plans to manufacture its own vaccine, but further official information about the vaccine has not been issued.

Egypt has locally produced millions of doses of the Chinese Sinovac coronavirus vaccine since mid-2021 in its VACSERA factories in Giza’s 6 of October City.

The country has also imported doses of all types of vaccines used worldwide, including Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Pfizer, Sputnik V, AstraZeneca, Sinopharm, and Sinovac.

Egypt seeks to vaccinate 40 percent of the population by the end of the year as part of its vaccination campaign that started in January.

So far, around 25 million citizens have received the coronavirus vaccine nationwide, according to health officials earlier this month.