We’ve seen Made in Egypt Sinovac. Now we might be about to see Egypt-made Oxford / AstraZeneca shots. This is according to Vacsera head Heba Wali, who told Ala Mas’ouleety last night that the Health Ministry is currently in negotiations to locally manufacture the jab (watch, runtime 40:40).

The jabs would be made at Vacsera’s new Sixth of October factory: Able to produce around 600k shots per day, the Health Ministry has claimed that it will be the largest vaccine production facility in the Middle East and Africa.

Egypt is aiming to achieve Sinovac self-sufficiency by the beginning of next year: Egypt will source 100% of the ingredients needed to manufacture the Sinovac vaccine by 1Q2022, Vacsera Chair Heba Wali told Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi (watch, runtime 16:24).

The country is currently importing the raw materials used in the vaccine from China: So far, we have enough to churn out as many as 10 mn shots of the vaccine, and China is supposed to be sending over enough for another 7.5 mn in the coming week. The country has so far produced 1 mn Sinovac jabs, and plans to manufacture 80 mn by the end of the year.

Minapharm is also set to locally produce some 40 mn doses of Russia’s Sputnik V jab per year, with the first to be rolled out in 3Q2021.

Egypt plans to locally manufacture covid-19 vaccines for children, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly said yesterday, according to Al Masry Al Youm.

The Health Ministry reported 175 new covid-19 infections yesterday, down from 179 the day before. Egypt has now disclosed a total of 282,257 confirmed cases of covid-19. The ministry also reported 20 new deaths, bringing the country’s total death toll to 16,284.

Is Delta getting the better of Pfizer? The Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine may be less effective at protecting people against the Delta covid variant. Fresh Israeli government data collected over the past month suggests that the efficacy rate of the vaccine fell by almost a third, with the shot protecting 64% of people against the virus, down from 94% previously, according to Bloomberg.

But people are still being protected from severe covid: The data showed the vaccine is continuing to protect people from serious covid-19 illness.