UK donates nearly 300,000 doses of Covid vaccine to Egypt

The vaccines were shipped through the global Covax initiative

epa09229228 A nurse administers a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to an elderly man at a mass immunization venue inside Cairo's International Exhibition Center, in Cairo, Egypt, 26 May 2021.  EPA/KHALED ELFIQI
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Britain has donated 299,700 doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine to Egypt, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

The vaccines were shipped through the global Covax initiative, with the support of the UN children's agency and the WHO, and arrived in Cairo on Monday.

They were in a first tranche of the 100 million vaccine doses that British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged at a G7 summit, which the UK would share with countries in need by June 2022.

Days earlier, Egypt received about 1.7 million of AstraZeneca's shots through Covax. Egypt has also received Sputnik, Sinopharm, Sinovac and Johnson & Johnson shots.

It recently began to produce Sinovac's Covid-19 vaccines.

The government said in June that it aimed to vaccinate 40 per cent of Egypt's 100 million population by the end of this year.

Egypt is working to increase the vaccination rate to 800,000 people a day "during the coming period", the Cabinet said on Monday.

Updated: August 17, 2021, 9:49 PM