Egypt has fully vaccinated 21 million against COVID-19

Amr Kandil , Wednesday 29 Dec 2021

Egypt announced on Wednesday that it has administered slightly more than 21 million second coronavirus vaccine shots since the country started its vaccination campaign early this year.

An Egyptian medical worker administers a dose of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine . AFP

This means that Egypt has fully vaccinated slightly over 20 percent of its 102.8 million population, falling short of the World Health Organisation’s global target for countries to fully vaccinate 40 percent of their populations by the end of 2021.

The country has also administered first coronavirus vaccine shots to 34.6 million people, acting Health Minister Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar told a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

Egypt has so far imported over 119 million COVID-19 vaccines, Abdel-Ghaffar said, noting that around 64.3 million doses are still available.

This includes recent shipments of 2.3 million vaccines delivered through COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX), including about 1.5 million Pfizer shots, 462,000 Moderna shots, and 352,800 AstraZeneca shots.

Egypt has been battling a fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic since early August. Moreover, it has detected its first three cases of the new highly transmissible variant Omicron in Egyptian nationals who had returned from abroad at Cairo International Airport.

Over the past two months, Egypt has also vaccinated hundreds of thousands of children aged 12-18 years old and allowed citizens to receive a third booster shot at least six months after receiving their second dose without the need for registration.

Egypt has made vaccination against coronavirus a requirement for citizens to enter government institutions starting December. Starting last month, Egypt has also barred unvaccinated state employees from entering their workplaces without presenting negative PCR tests.

Vaccination for all those in the school and university education sector who are above 18 years of age, including students, teachers, and other staff, has been made mandatory.

In October, the health ministry announced that Egypt has secured all types of coronavirus vaccines after receiving the first Moderna vaccine shipment.

Egypt's vaccination campaign also includes the use of Sinopharm, Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Pfizer, and Sputnik V vaccines, as well as the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine.