File Photo: Egypt's Minister of Health Hala Zayed. Photo courtesy of Egyptian health ministry Facebook page
Egypt’s Health Minister Hala Zayed said on Thursday that 1.3 million of state's administrative personnel were vaccinated against coronavirus.
During the weekly cabinet meeting, the health minister said the number of COVID-19 vaccination centres increased from 580 to 678 last week in addition to mobile vaccination centres in Matrouh, Qalioubiya, Menouifya, Shariqiya and Suez.
She added that vaccination centres are supplied with teams to promote awareness among citizens of the importance of abiding by precautionary measures.
The health minister added that the ministry took a number of measures to help travelers get vaccines approved in host countries, saying travelers can now apply for vaccines not only through the ministry's hotline number but also through the website.
Zayed added that 250,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine have been given to travelers.
The minister said the number of Egyptians seeking to be vaccinated before traveling increased from 260,000 to 760,000 over the past 72 hours.
A total of 362,000 vaccination certificates with a QR code were issued in August, she said.
Speaking about plans to vaccinate pre-university education staff, she said more than 472,000 have registered across the nation using the ministry's website, stressing that they will get their second dose ahead of the start of academic year.
Egypt has imported millions of doses of vaccines of since starting its campaign early this year including the WHO-approved British AstraZeneca vaccine, Johnson & Johnson, the Chinese Sinopharm, and the Russian Sputnik V — which has not been approved by the WHO.
As many as 6,477,535 vaccine doses have been administered in Egypt through 16 August, according to the WHO.
Egypt has recently seen a slight but steady increase in the daily reported cases and is approaching the fourth wave of coronavirus.
On Wednesday, Egypt reported 203 new coronavirus cases, the highest single-day increase since 1 July, bringing the total infection tally officially to 289,938 since the outbreak began in February 2020.
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