Egypt Allocates Mobile COVID-19 Vaccination Clinics for Elderly, Pensioners

Egyptian ministers inspect Hurghada Airport (Facebook)
Egyptian ministers inspect Hurghada Airport (Facebook)
TT

Egypt Allocates Mobile COVID-19 Vaccination Clinics for Elderly, Pensioners

Egyptian ministers inspect Hurghada Airport (Facebook)
Egyptian ministers inspect Hurghada Airport (Facebook)

The Egyptian Health Ministry on Wednesday announced launching mobile clinics to provide coronavirus vaccine shots to the elderly and pensioners.

The mobile clinics will be stationed in front of post offices and pension and insurance offices in all governorates to make it easier for the elderly and those suffering from chronic diseases to get the jabs, the Ministry said.

As for home vaccinations, they will be carried out by well-trained teams.

The clinics are equipped with two data entry points to electronically register pensioners, and devices to check blood pressure and blood sugar before administering the vaccine.

The ministry has further allocated more than 400 vaccination centers nationwide and urged citizens to register to get the jabs.

Egypt’s local production of the first batch of the Chinese Sinovac coronavirus vaccine will start by the end of June, according to Health Minister Hala Zayed.

Ministry spokesman Khaled Mujahid said once the production of the first batch is completed, it will be sent to the Egyptian Drug Authority for analysis.

Mujahid said Chinese experts are in Egypt to supervise the manufacturing process and transfer expertise to both the Egyptian Holding Co. for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA) and the Egyptian Drug Authority.

He added that Egypt is one of the first countries in the world to manufacture the Sinovac vaccine following an agreement reached in April.

He stressed clinical trials had been conducted on the jab and that competitive prices were fixed in the agreement.



Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
TT

Fears for Gaza Hospitals as Fuel and Aid Run Low

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP
The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. - AFP

The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza said Friday that hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled.

The warning came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant more than a year into the Gaza war.

The United Nations and others have repeatedly decried humanitarian conditions, particularly in northern Gaza, where Israel said Friday it had killed two commanders involved in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war.

Gaza medics said an overnight Israeli raid on the cities of Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia resulted in dozens killed or missing.

Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza's field hospitals, told reporters all hospitals in the Palestinian territory "will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation's (Israel's) obstruction of fuel entry".

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said he was "deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of 80 patients, including 8 in the intensive care unit" at Kamal Adwan hospital, one of just two partly operating in northern Gaza.

Kamal Adwan director Hossam Abu Safia told AFP it was "deliberately hit by Israeli shelling for the second day" Friday and that "one doctor and some patients were injured".

Late Thursday, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, said: "The delivery of critical aid across Gaza, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies, is grinding to a halt."

He said that for more than six weeks, Israeli authorities "have been banning commercial imports" while "a surge in armed looting" has hit aid convoys.

Issuing the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the Hague-based ICC said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe they bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and crimes against humanity including over "the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies".

At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable.