CAIRO: Russian sources claim that their country will deliver 25 million doses of the Sputnik coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine to Egypt. The Egyptian government has not confirmed the claims.
Russia’s sovereign National Wealth Fund (NWF) said it had approved the delivery of 25 million doses of its potential vaccine to Egypt via FARCO-PHARMA, which it described as a “pioneering pharmaceutical company” in Egypt.
In a report published in the Lancet medical journal, Russian scientists said that those who were injected with the Sputnik vaccine had developed COVID-19 antibodies without showing any dangerous side effects. Russia licensed the vaccine for domestic use in August, becoming the first country to take such a step.
Egypt’s Ministry of Health and Population spokesman Dr. Khaled Megahed said a number of companies in different countries had submitted reports to the ministry to conduct clinical research on COVID-19 vaccines and that some of those companies had expressed a desire to cooperate with Egypt in manufacturing the vaccine. However, he said that none of those requests has been approved and all are pending further reviews.
The Ministry of Health is currently conducting third-phase clinical testing on two COVID-19 vaccines in cooperation with the Chinese companies SINOPHARM and Sinovak.
So far, 103,198 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Egypt, with 96,494 recoveries and 5,930 fatalities.
A number of countries have already purchased the Sputnik vaccine, including India, which has signed a deal with the NWF for the delivery of 100 million doses. India has recorded the second-highest number of cases of COVID-19 in the world.
Brazil reportedly purchased 50 million doses of the vaccine and will start testing it in October on 10,000 volunteers. Mexico purchased 32 million doses, Uzbekistan 35 million, and Nepal 25 million.
Egypt’s Minister of Health Hala Zayed took part in the third phase of a clinical trial two days ago as part of the G42 package and the For Humanity initiative, a cooperative project between the Chinese government and Emirates Healthcare Group, which includes research into potential COVID-19 vaccines as well as cooperation in manufacturing any successful vaccine. Zayed said Egypt is taking part in the third phase of two clinical trials — along with 100 other countries.
The For Humanity initiative, in cooperation with the Chinese government, involves trials in four Arab countries: Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain and Jordan.
Russia to send 25m doses of coronavirus vaccine to Egypt, sources say
https://arab.news/cr3ws
Russia to send 25m doses of coronavirus vaccine to Egypt, sources say
- Russia’s sovereign National Wealth Fund (NWF) said it had approved the delivery of 25 million doses of its potential vaccine to Egypt via FARCO-PHARMA
- The Ministry of Health is currently conducting third-phase clinical testing on two COVID-19 vaccines
Israel’s ‘deliberate intention of preventing births among Palestinians’ meets ‘legal criteria of Genocide Convention’: Reports
- Births in Gaza fell by 41% during conflict as maternal deaths, miscarriages surged
- ‘The destruction of maternal care in Gaza reflects the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinian people, in whole or in part’
LONDON: Births in Gaza fell by 41 percent due to Israel’s war on the territory, with the conflict resulting in catastrophic numbers of maternal deaths, miscarriages and birth complications, two reports have found.
The data on pregnant women, babies and maternity care in the war-torn Palestinian enclave also revealed a surge in newborn mortality and premature births, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
Dangerous wartime conditions and Israel’s systematic destruction of Gaza’s health systems were blamed for the alarming statistics.
The two reports were conducted by Physicians for Human Rights, in collaboration with the University of Chicago Law School’s Global Human Rights Clinic and Physicians for Human Rights — Israel.
Researchers highlighted Israel’s “deliberate intention of preventing births among Palestinians, meeting the legal criteria of the Genocide Convention.”
The reports build on earlier findings by PHR’s Israel branch. They place the testimonies of pregnant women and new mothers within the context of health data and field reports, which recorded “2,600 miscarriages, 220 pregnancy-related deaths, 1,460 premature births, over 1,700 underweight newborns, and over 2,500 infants requiring neonatal intensive care” between January and June 2025.
PHRI’s Lama Bakri, a psychologist and project manager, said: “These figures represent a shocking deterioration from pre-war ‘normalcy,’ and are the direct result of war trauma, starvation, displacement and the collapse of maternal healthcare.
“These conditions endanger both mothers and their unborn babies, newborns, and breastfed infants, and will have consequences for generations, permanently altering families.”
She added: “Beyond the numbers, what emerges in this report are the women themselves, their voices, choices and lived realities, confronting impossible dilemmas that statistics alone cannot fully capture.”
Maternal and newborn care in Gaza has been damaged by Israel’s destruction of health infrastructure, as well as fuel shortages, blocked medical supplies, mass displacement and relentless bombardment.
As a result, survival in Gaza’s overcrowded tent encampments has become the sole option for pregnant women and new mothers.
During the first six months of Israel’s war on the territory, more than 6,000 mothers were killed, at an average of two every hour, according to UN Women estimates.
It is also believed that about 150,000 pregnant women and new mothers have been forcibly displaced by the conflict.
In the first months of last year, just 17,000 births were recorded in Gaza, a 41 percent fall compared to the same period in 2022.
The researchers examined Israel’s apparent strategy to undermine Palestinian births, highlighting a targeted strike in December 2023 on the Al-Basma IVF clinic.
The attack on Gaza’s largest fertility center destroyed about 5,000 reproductive specimens and ended a pattern of 70-100 IVF procedures each month.
The strike was deliberately designed to target the reproductive potential of Palestinians, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry later found.
“Reproductive violence constitutes a violation under international law; when carried out systematically and with them intent to destroy, it falls within the definition of genocide of the Genocide Convention,” the reports said.
“The destruction of maternal care in Gaza reflects the deliberate infliction of conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of the Palestinian people, in whole or in part.”
