Minister of Health Hala Zayed said on Saturday that the government targets to vaccinate around 250,000 medical workers and eligible citizens against Covid-19 by the end of this week.

During a meeting with health officials from all governorates, Zayed directed to increase the number of medical centres allocated for administering the vaccine doses in the governorates with the highest infections.

Khaled Megahed, the health ministry spokesman said the minister followed up on the process of administering the vaccine doses to medical staff and eligible citizens, who include the elderly and those with chronic diseases.

Earlier this month, Egypt initiated mass vaccinations against Covid-19, starting with the elderly and patients with chronic diseases.

Egypt received on Saturday a shipment of 300,000 doses of a vaccine manufactured by the Chinese pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm, as a gift from China.

In February, Egypt received a 300,000-dose batch of the Sinopharm vaccine, also donated by China.

Egypt has so far confirmed a total of 194,127 coronavirus cases resulting in 11,512 deaths.