CAIRO: Egypt's Health Minister Hala Zayed and Deputy Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Ahmed Ogwell have met to discuss cooperating to provide coronavirus vaccines to African countries.
Khaled Mujahid, official spokesman for the health ministry, said that the meeting discussed Egypt's strategy to manufacture vaccines locally and export these to African countries.
Mujahid said that the minister affirmed Egypt's readiness to provide vaccines to Africa in parallel with achieving national self-sufficiency, in accordance with the directives of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi.
This was in response to the challenges countries were experiencing in providing vaccines due to limited global production.
Mujahid said that the minister reviewed the executive steps taken by Egypt to produce vaccines locally through the Vecsera company factory. This was in addition to equipping the company's factory to provide vaccines to African and other countries in cooperation with international firms.
The meeting discussed transferring the expertise and experiences of the Egyptian Ministry of Health to African countries in the local production of coronavirus vaccines.
The minister expressed Egypt's readiness to receive representatives of the health ministries from African countries to train them in the vaccine production system.
Mujahid said that the minister drew attention to the importance of cooperation between the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the Egyptian Centers for Disease Control. He said that the minister welcomed researchers from African countries conducting their scientific research and training in Egypt.
