Egypt receives 1st shipment of Chinese vaccine tested in UAE

Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed and diplomats from China and the UAE were at the airport to greet the shipment.

Health ministry spokesman Khaled Megahed said in a statement that the government would first vaccinate health care workers, particularly those who deal with COVID-19 cases. He said they would receive two doses of the vaccine over 21 days.

Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous country, has seen an increase in confirmed coronavirus infections in recent weeks amid warnings by the government about a second wave of the pandemic. Overall, Egypt has reported more than 119,700 confirmed cases, including 6,832 deaths.

The Sinopharm vaccine has been approved for emergency use in a few countries and the company is still conducting late-stage clinical trials in 10 nations.

Sinopharm’s vaccine relies on a killed virus, similar to how polio immunisations work.

Vaccines being developed by Western companies, like the shot made by Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech, target the coronavirus’ spike protein using RNA. The United Kingdom already has begun vaccinating people with the Pfizer shot.

Pfizer reports its shot as being 95% effective, while another RNA candidate from Moderna appears to be 94.5% effective. Results suggest a third vaccine from Oxford University and AstraZeneca is safe and about 70% effective, but questions remain about how well it may help protect those over 55.