Sisi Orders Providing Coronavirus Vaccines Once Internationally Available

A health team at the temporary coronavirus test center in Cairo on June 17, 2020 (AP)
A health team at the temporary coronavirus test center in Cairo on June 17, 2020 (AP)
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Sisi Orders Providing Coronavirus Vaccines Once Internationally Available

A health team at the temporary coronavirus test center in Cairo on June 17, 2020 (AP)
A health team at the temporary coronavirus test center in Cairo on June 17, 2020 (AP)

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has ordered providing vaccines for the novel coronavirus once they are made available by international companies, said Prime Minister Mustafa Madbouly on Thursday.

Head of Egypt’s Authority for Unified Procurement, Medical Supply and Technology Management Bahaa El-Din Zidan has recently sent a report to Madbouly on the efforts exerted by his authority to follow up on the latest developments worldwide on the coronavirus vaccines.

Zidan said the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI) has presented the available vaccines, the manufacturers, and the different stages of their development, as well as the timetable for the process of manufacturing and exporting the vaccine to various countries.

The vaccines are to be manufactured in September and October and GAVI will adopt a plan for distributing them across the affected countries, he added.

Egypt has reiterated its share of the coronavirus vaccine from GAVI during a meeting held on Tuesday between representatives of the authority and officials from the global alliance, he affirmed.

The GAVI is an international body aimed at creating equal access to new and underused vaccines for children.

Along with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), GAVI co-leads the COVAX Facility, a financing mechanism designed to guarantee rapid and fair access to COVID-19 vaccines worldwide.

It aims to deliver two billion doses of safe, effective COVID-19 vaccines by the end of 2021.

Egypt has recorded 30,075 recoveries from COVID-19 since the pandemic’s outbreak.

The Ministry of Health and Population revealed on Thursday that “the index of recovery and discharge from quarantine centers continued to rise after earlier recording 33.5 percent.”

The relative stability in the rates of coronavirus infections in the country has increased the chances of overcoming the crisis.

The government has been gradually easing virus restrictions since June.



Italy Says Suspending EU Sanctions on Syria Could Help Encourage Transition

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)
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Italy Says Suspending EU Sanctions on Syria Could Help Encourage Transition

In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)
In this photo released by the Syrian official news agency SANA, Syria's de facto leader Ahmad al-Sharaa, right, meets with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Damascus, Syria, Friday, Jan. 10, 2025. (SANA via AP)

Italy's foreign minister says a moratorium on European Union sanctions on Syria could help encourage the country's transition after the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad by opposition groups.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani visited Syria on Friday and expressed Italy’s keen interest in helping Syria recover from civil war, rebuild its broken economy and help stabilize the region.

Tajani, who met with Syria’s new de facto leaders, including Ahmed al-Sharaa, said a stable Syria and Lebanon was of strategic and commercial importance to Europe.

He said the fall of Assad's government, as well as the Lebanon parliament's vote on Thursday to elect army commander Joseph Aoun as president, were signs of optimism for Middle East stability.

He said Italy wanted to play a leading role in Syria’s recovery and serve as a bridge between Damascus and the EU, particularly given Italy’s commercial and strategic interests in the Mediterranean.

“The Mediterranean can no longer just be a sea of death, a cemetery of migrants but a sea of commerce a sea of development,” he said.

Tajani later traveled to Lebanon and met with Aoun. Italy has long played a sizeable role in the UN peacekeeping force for Lebanon, UNIFIL.

On the eve of his visit, Tajani presided over a meeting in Rome with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and officials from Britain, France and Germany as well as the EU foreign policy chief. He said that meeting of the so-called Quintet on Syria was key to begin the discussion about a change to the EU sanctions.

“The sanctions were against the Assad regime. If the situation has changed, we have to change our choices,” Tajani said.