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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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Arab World

US Announces $200 Mn Additional Aid for Sudan

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 11 million. AFP/File
The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 11 million. AFP/File
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US Announces $200 Mn Additional Aid for Sudan

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 11 million. AFP/File
The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 11 million. AFP/File

The United States on Thursday announced $200 million of new funding for the humanitarian crisis in Sudan, bringing Washington's commitment to $2.3 billion, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Thursday.
Sudan has been ravaged by 20 months of fighting between the regular army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and the African country has been identified as one of the world's worst humanitarian disasters, AFP reported.
The World Food Program warned Thursday that Sudan risks becoming the world's largest hunger crisis in recent history, with 1.7 million people across the country either facing famine or at risk of famine.
"We see too many Sudanese faces hunger, despair," Blinken said at a UN Security Council meeting on Sudan.
He lamented that political and military crises have "derailed Sudan's transition to democracy and unleashed what is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world."
"The United States has worked intensively with partners to provide relief to Sudan... today we are announcing another roughly $200 million," he added, noting that in some parts of Sudan, people are forced to eat grass and peanut shells to survive.
OCHA operations director Edem Wosornu told the Security Council $4.2 billion would be needed to support the needs of Sudan's people next year.
Fraction of aid need met
"The volume of humanitarian aid reaching people in need remains a fraction of what is required," Wosornu told the Council.
"Ultimately, the only way to end this cycle of violence, death and destruction is for this Council to rise to the challenge of delivering lasting peace in Sudan."
Nearly all of the vast Darfur region of western Sudan is now controlled by the RSF, which has also taken over swathes of the neighboring Kordofan region as well as much of the center of the country.
The regular army retains control of the north and east, while the capital Khartoum and its surrounding cities are a battleground between the warring parties.
As fighting rages on the ground, 10 Sudanese civilians were killed and 20 wounded in paramilitary shelling of North Darfur's besieged capital El-Fasher that hit the city's main hospital and other areas on Wednesday.
The war has killed tens of thousands and displaced more than 11 million, creating what the United Nations describes as one of the worst humanitarian disasters in recent memory.
Both the army and the RSF have been accused of indiscriminately bombing medical facilities and civilians, as well as deliberate attacks on residential areas.
"Footage abounds of forms of brutality that defy human consciousness and no person should have to bear witness to," Shayna Lewis, a Sudan expert at the non-governmental group Preventing and Ending Mass Atrocities, told the council.
"But this Council must demonstrate through action that the imperiled lives of 49 million Sudanese will not be abandoned to the whims of armed men."