Covid-19 vaccination is now mandatory for all 18+ year-old students, educators and staff at Egyptian schools, Cabinet spokesperson Nader Saad confirmed in a phone-in to Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 11:29) last night. Students who are aged 18 and above at public and private-sector schools and universities, as well as unvaccinated employees in the education sector, must as soon as possible receive a covid-19 vaccine, which will be offered to them at no charge, Saad said. Saad did not specify what consequences those who fail to get vaccinated may face.

18+ year-old students won’t need to register with the ministry and will receive their vaccines through their schools, Mohamed Abdel Fattah, head of the Health Ministry’s Central Administration for Preventive Affairs told Salet Al Tahrir (watch, runtime 16:02).

Minors under the age of 18 are still not eligible to get jabbed just yet, Saad stressed.

Unvaccinated travellers can now expedite their vaccination requests: If you’ve already registered to get jabbed but want to be placed on the fast-track list due to last-minute travel arrangements, you can now make a transfer request through the Health Ministry’s website, according to a new set of instructions released by the ministry at the weekend and published by Masrawy. Click the “travel transfer” tab to update your application status, and you should receive an SMS confirming an appointment within 72 hours.

Unvaccinated travellers who have signed up for, but have not yet received a jab can head to their designated vaccine center (there are 126 of them dedicated to travellers nationwide) to get an appointment. The second dose of the vaccine must be administered at the same center where the first dose was received, and booster shots will not be made available, the ministry wrote.

What if I missed the appointment for my first dose? You have 48 hours from the time you receive your confirmation message to schedule another appointment by calling the ministry’s covid-19 hotline on 15335 to reactivate your request. If you missed your second dose appointment you’ll have a six-day grace period to get a new one — as long as you don’t contract covid in the interim.

You can also accelerate your second dose if you’re travelling: You can get in touch with the covid information center for your governorate and use your proof of travel plans to expedite an appointment for a second dose. AstraZeneca requires an eight-week interval between its first and second doses, the ministry said.

New vaccination centers should help absorb the extra demand: The government has increased its vaccination centers to 657 from the current 580 that are administering shots nationwide. This is in addition to ramping up the centers that are dedicated to issuing official vaccination certificates for those wishing to travel to 145 from a current 126.

The Health Ministry reported 173 new covid-19 infections yesterday, up from 164 the day before. Egypt has now disclosed a total of 286,168 confirmed cases of covid-19. The ministry also reported 9 new deaths, bringing the country’s total death toll to 16,663.

Infections have now been on the rise for 25 days straight, save for a one-off drop on 5 August, according to our in-house covid tracker.

Clinics to receive 5 mn doses of home-made Sinovac in early September: Some 5 mn jabs of the Egypt-made Sinovac will be sent to clinics around the country by the beginning of September, advisor to the health minister Noha Assem told CBC Extra (watch, runtime 9:17). The first 1 mn shots of the vaccine were said to be sent to vaccination centers on 14 August. State-owned vaccine maker Vacsera has so far manufactured some 10 mn shots of the Chinese vaccine, and aims to manufacture 15 mn each month starting August.