Last checked at 
(Adds Sinopharm delivery, details)
CAIRO, May 13 (Reuters) - Egypt has received a batch of more
than 1.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine
through the COVAX initiative and a separate shipment of 500,000
Sinopharm vaccine doses from China, the health ministry said on
Thursday.
The country received its first COVAX delivery of 854,000
AstraZeneca doses at the start of April. It has also received
several shipments of the Sinopharm vaccine, bringing the total
number of vaccine doses delivered to 5 million, the health
ministry said.
Egypt has an agreement for the supply of 20 million
Sinopharm doses, and has been allocated 4.5 million doses of the
AstraZeneca vaccine through COVAX.
It is preparing to produce the Sinovac and Sputnik vaccines
locally.
Egypt, with a population of just over 100 million, is trying
to contain a third wave of COVID-19 infections and the
government has put in place some restrictive measures until May
21, shortening opening hours and banning large gatherings.
Some 2.7 million people have registered online with the
health ministry to receive a vaccine. Authorities opened a mass
vaccination centre in Cairo this month capable of vaccinating
10,000 people per day.
Egypt had officially confirmed 240,927 coronavirus cases
including 14,091 deaths as of Wednesday.
Officials and experts say the real number of infections is
far higher, but is not reflected in government figures because
of low testing rates and the exclusion of private test results.
(Reporting by Aidan Lewis; Editing by Jason Neely and Jan
Harvey)
