Egypt says about a third of its population has received one Covid-19 vaccine shot

More than 20 million Egyptians have now been fully vaccinated

A woman in Cairo receives a Covid-19 vaccine in November. Reuters

About a third of Egypt’s population of more than 100 million people have received a first shot of anti-Covid-19 vaccines, a Cabinet minister said on Thursday.

Higher Education Minister Khaled Abdel Ghafar said 33.77 million have been jabbed at least once since the vaccination campaign began nearly a year ago and that 20.94 million Egyptians have been fully vaccinated, he told a Cabinet meeting.

He said another 2.73 million people aged between 12 and 18 have been vaccinated since the government decided to include them in its vaccination drive late last month.

The minister’s figures show a sharp increase in the number of people fully vaccinated, which was about 14 million just weeks ago.

The latest figures, meanwhile, follow the detection earlier this month of three local cases of the Omicron variant.

Mr Abdel Ghafar said the three people infected by the variant arrived in Egypt on December 4. It was not clear from where they had arrived.

Egypt has officially reported 377,960 coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic in early 2020 and 21,500 deaths.

However, the actual figures are believed to be much higher since authorities record only those treated by the state health sector.

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