The Health Ministry reported 512 new covid-19 infections yesterday, down from 521 the day before. The ministry also reported 53 new deaths, bringing the country’s total death toll to 9,460. Egypt has now disclosed a total of 167,525 confirmed cases of covid-19.

Egypt currently has 2,553 beds available in isolation hospitals, of which 623 are occupied, Health Minister Advisor Sherif Wadee told Masaa DMC’s Ramy Radwan. There are also 1,046 total ICU beds in the country, of which 510 are occupied, and of the 483 ventilators in Egypt, 158 are currently in use (watch, runtime: 9:28).

The National Research Center is working on developing two covid-19 vaccines, and is seeking approval from the Egyptian Drug Authority to begin clinical trials for one, while conducting animal testing for another, the center’s head of covid-19 vaccine research Mohamed Ahmed Ali told Masaa DMC’s Ramy Radwan (watch, runtime: 10:12). A locally-made vaccine could be available before the end of the year, depending on the availability of adequate human vaccine production facilities, which Egypt does not yet have, Ali said.

Egypt has received a shipment of 150k liters of oxygen from Saudi Arabia, Health Minister Hala Zayed said yesterday. The shipment comes after reports of alleged oxygen shortages in several public hospitals earlier this month, which the ministry denied. Egypt is estimated to be in need of 30k cbm of oxygen per day, according to the Covid-19 Oxygen Needs Tracker.

DONATIONS- The Federation of Egyptian Banks will provide EGP 500 mn to the Tahya Misr Fund to finance the supply of vaccines to low-income earners, Hapi Journal reports. CIB, the National Bank of Egypt, Banque Misr, QNB AlAhli, Banque du Caire, and AAIB provided the bulk of the funding.