Egypt received more than 854,400 doses of COVID-19 vaccines as part of the global COVAX agreement.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said Thursday that the shipment is part of 40 million doses Egypt is set to receive via GAVI.
Egypt now has 1.6 million doses available, in addition to another 400,000 doses which it will soon receive, bringing the total number of coronavirus vaccine doses to two million.
The country began vaccinating frontline medical staff against COVID-19 earlier this year and expanded its vaccination rollout to include the elderly and people with chronic diseases.
COVAX was established by the Geneva-based GAVI vaccine alliance and the World Health Organization (WHO) for the equitable distribution of vaccines.
It had arrangements in place to access nearly two billion doses of COVID-19 vaccine candidates by the end of 2021, on behalf of 190 participating economies.
Madbouly pointed out that in implementation of the directives of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, the Higher Committee for Managing the Coronavirus Crisis and the cabinet have decided to expand the access to the vaccine among all sectors.
He referred to a website on which all citizens may apply and said 600,000 applicants have registered their names so far.
According to a study conducted by Health Minister Hala Zayed, these people will receive the vaccine within the next 10 days, and the vaccine will be available in all the 139 vaccination centers across Egypt.
Egypt had anticipated the importance of developing the pharmaceutical and medical supplies sectors, Madbouly noted, indicating that this enabled the state to hold on pretty well during the pandemic.
