Covid-19: Egypt begins its vaccination campaign by caregivers
A press conference at the Abu Khalifa hospital in Ismailia near Cairo broadcasts live images of Doctor Abdel Menoim Selim receiving the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine against Covid-19 at the start of the official vaccination campaign in Egypt, January 24, 2021. AP - Nariman El-Mofty
Text by: RFI Follow
2 min
The Chinese Sinopharm vaccine will first be inoculated to the Egyptian medical profession.
The country, which has more than one hundred million inhabitants, is experiencing a relative slowdown in the coronavirus, which has officially affected 161,000 people and killed nearly 9,000.
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With our correspondent in Cairo,
Alexandre Buccianti
The government's decision is explained by the fact that the Egyptian medical corps, nicknamed "
the White Army
", suffered
heavy losses
.
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 200 doctors have been killed by Covid-19, not to mention the rest of the healthcare staff.
At the height of the pandemic, doctors even threatened to go on strike and obtained an improvement in their working conditions.
Agreement for 20 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine
The second stage of vaccination should concern people suffering from co-morbidities, then those over 65, before extending free of charge to the entire population over 18 years of age.
For the moment the inoculated vaccine is the Sinopharm, the Chinese having been the first to offer their services to make Egypt, where the vaccine should be manufactured, a bridgehead to Africa.
The government also announced an agreement with Britain's AstraZeneca for the purchase of 20 million doses of vaccine.
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Read also: Covid-19 in Egypt: the causes of a sudden upsurge
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