Egypt gets jabs underway with Chinese vaccine

Egypt has become one of the first African countries to begin vaccinations against COVID-19.

The program got underway on Sunday with medical workers receiving the Chinese-developed Sinopharm vaccine at a hospital in the northeastern province of Ismailia, the Egyptian Health Ministry said.

Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed said that clinical trials have proved the Sinopharm vaccine to be safe and highly effective in COVID-19 prevention, especially "in prevention of COVID-19 infection with severe symptoms". The North African country on Dec 10 received the first batch of the vaccine, and it was licensed for emergency use later that month.

Egypt's first jabs took place just days after the World Health Organization warned that Africa is in danger of being left behind on COVID-19 vaccinations after countries in other regions acted quickly to strike deals for supplies with drugmakers.

The warning from the agency's Africa regional office came the day before a vaccine pre-order program for African Union member states got underway on Friday.

The task is being handled through the Africa Medical Supplies Platform on behalf of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

For the pre-order program to benefit other AU members, the African Export-Import Bank will facilitate payments by providing advance procurement commitment guarantees of up to $2 billion to the vaccine manufacturers on behalf of the AU member states.

"We first, not me first, is the only way to end the pandemic," Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO regional director for Africa, said in a virtual briefing on Thursday.

The WHO's Africa regional office said that through COVAX, an initiative for equitable vaccine access co-led by the global health body, it is committed to vaccinating at least 20 percent of Africans by the end of 2021. This will be achieved by providing a maximum of 600 million doses, with two doses per person, in a program carried out in phases.

On Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said that Chinese companies are actively discussing cooperation with COVAX. China is willing to contribute to the realization of vaccine accessibility and affordability in developing countries through COVAX, she said.

Xinhua contributed to this story.