Egypt received 1.5 mn doses of AstraZeneca vaccines yesterday, the Health Ministry announced, without citing the origin of the shipment.

We also received 851k doses of AstraZeneca vaccines on Monday, supplied by Germany under the Gavi / Covax program, Unicef announced on Tuesday. That’s in addition to 546k AstraZeneca vaccine doses received from the French government on Sunday, for a total of 2.9 mn doses of AstraZeneca so far this week. Health Minister spokesperson Khaled Megahed on Monday said Egypt is expecting to receive around 3.5-4 mn doses of AstraZeneca this week from France, Germany, Greece and Poland, after Health Minister Hala Zayed last week said we were expecting only 100-250k doses of AstraZeneca by an undetermined date.

The Health Ministry reported 692 new covid-19 infections yesterday, up from 688 the day before. Egypt has now disclosed a total of 298,988 confirmed cases of covid-19. The ministry also reported 27 new deaths, bringing the country’s total death toll to 17,043.

IN GLOBAL COVID NEWS-

The US has pledged to donate another 500 mn doses of the Pfizer vaccine through Covax starting in January, according to Reuters. The new doses for low and middle-income countries will bring the number of jabs donated by the US to over 1.1 bn.

Global health experts welcomed the donation — but said it was still insufficient, estimating that 5-9 bn shots are needed to vaccinate the world’s population. They also noted that the Pfizer vaccine poses difficulties for developing nations, which often lack the necessary shipping and storage infrastructure. Biden said USD 750 mn in total would be allocated to help distribute and administer the jabs.

The UK will accept vaccination certificates issued in the UAE starting 4 October, the British embassy said on Twitter yesterday, opening one of the busiest flight routes in the world between two major business hubs. The UK will only accept certificates of people who have received the AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson Johnson vaccines. The easing of restrictions comes as Dubai prepares to open its doors for the Expo 2020 which begins on 1 October.

When will it be Egypt’s turn? “We are now working with the Egyptian government to come up with a mechanism that will make vaccination certificates, for those who received the vaccine in Egypt, recognized in the UK,” the British embassy said Tuesday, without providing further details.