The ministry also recorded 54 coronavirus-related fatalities, bringing the total tally of deaths to 23,806.

The daily report added that the total number of recoveries increased to 402,121 after 1,239 patients were discharged from hospitals nationwide in the past 24 hours.

Egypt has been witnessing a steady decline in the daily number of coronavirus infections in the past two weeks after a sharp increase in the past month.

On Sunday, Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar, the spokesperson for the ministry, told local media that Egypt has started holding meetings to draw up executive plans to begin producing mRNA COVID-19 vaccines over the next few months.

Egypt — along with five other African nations — was chosen by the WHO to receive the technology needed to produce mRNA vaccines according to an announcement made by the UN organisation in Brussels during the African Union-European Union Summit on Friday.

Egypt, through the state-run Egyptian Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA), is already producing the Chinese Sinovac vaccine as part of an agreement with the Chinese pharmaceutical that provides the African country with the needed raw materials.

In mid-November 2021, Egypt also announced the start of clinical trials for its own, home-made coronavirus vaccine, COVI-VAX, a step officials said would take six to nine months.