El Nasr Auto’s plans to produce Chinese EVs was the big news of last night, after the Public Enterprises Ministry announced that it would import 13 cars to begin road tests ahead of the manufacturing process. Among those who took note: Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 20:07) and Yahduth fi Masr (watch, runtime: 10:12 | 2:53). We have more on the story in this morning’s news well above.

Also getting airtime: The Egypt-made Sinovac shots, after the Health Ministry yesterday said it would move ahead to locally manufacture as many as 40 mn doses of the vaccine over the upcoming six months. Vacsera was initially due to produce the first batch of the jab as early as Tuesday, but the state-owned vaccine manufacturer is apparently running slightly late in production as Health Ministry spokesperson Khaled Megahed told Masaa DMC last night that production is still ongoing and is expected to finish in the coming “few” days (watch, runtime: 10:46). The shots will then undergo a final analysis before their dispatch to clinics — a process that should only take a couple of weeks, he said.

The 40 mn-dose target is important to Egypt: Achieving it will prove to the world Egypt has sufficient vaccines to protect its people from covid, and after Vacsera’s production plants obtain international certification from the World Health Organization (WHO), we would then be able to share locally-manufactured vaccines with countries through the Gavi / Covax facility, Megahed said.