CAIRO, May 13 (Reuters) - Egypt has received a batch of more
than 1.7 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine
through the COVAX initiative, the health ministry said on
Thursday.
Egypt received its first COVAX delivery of 854,000
AstraZeneca doses at the start of April. It has also received
several batches of the Sinopharm vaccine from China, bringing
the total number of vaccine doses delivered to 5 million, the
health ministry said.
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.
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)
Astrazeneca (AZN)
