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Egypt Accelerates Establishment of Covid-19 Vaccines Production Facility

Madbouly visits the local vaccine production factory. (Egyptian government via Facebook)
Madbouly visits the local vaccine production factory. (Egyptian government via Facebook)
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Egypt Accelerates Establishment of Covid-19 Vaccines Production Facility

Madbouly visits the local vaccine production factory. (Egyptian government via Facebook)
Madbouly visits the local vaccine production factory. (Egyptian government via Facebook)

Egypt is moving at a quick pace to establish a complex to produce up to eight kinds of coronavirus vaccines.

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly urged citizens to adhere to the preventive measures as the country grapples with a fourth wave of the pandemic.

The Health and Population Ministry said 255 new coronavirus cases were detected, upping the total to 287,899. Recoveries reached 238,249. Seven people have died from the virus over the past 24 hours, raising the toll to 16,721.

Madbouly said the complex is a massive facility that aims at producing eight types of vaccines.

During a press conference following a tour of the complex at the 6th of October City, he said production capacity at the facility is expected to reach 3 million vaccine doses per day or an average of 1 billion annually.

Madbouly was accompanied by Health Minister Hala Zayed and Giza Governor Ahmed Rashed.

Zayed said that the coronavirus vaccines plant at the Holding Company for Biological Products and Vaccines (VACSERA) complex is planned to produce up to 24,000 packs per hour.

The factory covers 6,000 square meters of the VACSERA complex, she added.

It will be the biggest in the Middle East and North Africa for the production of COVID-19 vaccines, she continued.

Zayed expects the facility to become a regional hub for the production of vaccines planned for export to African countries.

President of VACSERA Heba Wali said the new factory comprised eight central laboratories equipped with the latest devices for measuring production quality and testing manufacturing inputs and the final product according to the standards recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).

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Guterres Establishes Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria

19 December 2024, US, New York: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference, ahead of a Security Council meeting. Photo: Bianca Otero/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
19 December 2024, US, New York: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference, ahead of a Security Council meeting. Photo: Bianca Otero/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Guterres Establishes Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria

19 December 2024, US, New York: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference, ahead of a Security Council meeting. Photo: Bianca Otero/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
19 December 2024, US, New York: UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres speaks during a press conference, ahead of a Security Council meeting. Photo: Bianca Otero/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed on Thursday Karla Quintana of Mexico as Head of the Independent Institution on Missing Persons in Syria.

“Indeed, all international mechanisms to advance the protection of human rights in Syria and accountability for crimes committed – must have what they need to carry out their vital work,” he said.

The International Commission on Missing Persons in The Hague separately said it had received data indicating there may be as many as 66, as yet unverified, mass grave sites in Syria.

More than 150,000 people are considered missing, according to international and Syrian organizations, including the United Nations and the Syrian Network for Human Rights, it said.

Ahead of a UN Security Council meeting chaired by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Guterres underlined that Israel's widespread strikes on Syrian military infrastructure were “violations” of the country's sovereignty and called for them to cease, AFP reported.

Israeli warplanes have carried out hundreds of attacks across the country, including in the capital, Damascus.

Israeli officials said the strikes across Syria were aimed at destroying strategic weapons and military infrastructure to prevent them being used by rebel groups that drove President Bashar Assad from power this month.

Ahead of the Security Council meeting, Guterres called for the full restoration of Syria’s sovereignty, territorial unity, and an end to all fighting.

He condemned Israel for pushing its forces into a UN-run buffer zone on its border with Syria following the fall of Assad.

“Let me be clear, there should be no military forces in the area of separation other than UN peacekeepers -- period,” he said.

“Those peacekeepers must have freedom of movement to undertake their important work. Israel and Syria must uphold the terms of the 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement which remains fully in force.”

Guterres then stressed that the UN is working to facilitate a peaceful political transition in Syria, adding that adequate funding for humanitarian and recovery response is critical.

He said there is “a real risk that progress could unravel,” without an “inclusive, credible and peaceful” political transition that is Syrian led, on behalf of all its citizens.

“This is a decisive moment – a moment of hope and history, but also one of great uncertainty,” the UN chief said.

“Some will try to exploit the situation for their own narrow ends. But it is the obligation of the international community to stand with the people of Syria who have suffered so much,” he added.

Meanwhile, hundreds of Syrians protested Thursday in central Damascus calling for democracy and women’s rights, more than a week after the opposition coalition ousted Assad.

“We want a democracy, not a religious state,” men and women demonstrators chanted in central Damascus’s Ummayad Square, as well as “Free, civil Syria” and “the Syrian people are one”, while some protesters held signs including “No free nation without free women.”

The protest came more than 10 days after Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched a lightning offensive from their northwest Syria bastion, sweeping swathes of territory from government control and taking the capital on December 8, toppling Assad.