Anyone who has not yet registered for vaccination can go to walk-in clinics at youth centers for same-day vaccination starting this morning, Health Minister Hala Zayed told El Hekaya’s Amr Adib in an interview on Friday night (watch, runtime: 33:13). She added that 850 vaccination centers, including 175 for travel vaccination, are now operational for pre-scheduled appointments. We’re digging into the story and hope to have more this afternoon on where the walk-in clinics are located and how they work.

Egypt will begin vaccinating under-18s before the end of the year: Vaccination will begin for secondary school students between the ages of 15-18 within the next two months, Zayed told Adib.

We’re about 3-4 weeks away from the peak of the fourth wave, Zayed said at a presser on Thursday (watch, runtime: 5:36). She said the ministry expects the death toll to be lower than in previous waves thanks to progress on the national immunization drive and the emergence of a substantial number of people who have natural immunity thanks to prior infection.

Taking stock of vaccines: Egypt received 2.3 mn doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine from Germany last week, Zayed said at the presser on Thursday (watch, runtime: 48:13). The ministry also received 546k AstraZeneca vaccine doses from the French government under the Covax initiative.

And up to 5.2 mn doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines will reach the country within a few days, Zayed said.

The latest vaccination tally: Some 16 mn Egyptians have now received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, 5 mn of whom have received both doses, Zayed said. The last count put the number of vaccinated people in the country at 13 mn in mid-September.

Vacsera’s second covid vaccine production line will start operating within the coming six weeks: The rollout will start as soon as Vacsera opens its second production line at its Agouza facility in the coming 5-6 weeks, which will double its daily production capacity to 1 mn doses.

MEANWHILE- Russia’s one-shot ‘Sputnik Light’ approved by the EDA: The Egyptian Drug Authority (ED) has given the greenlight under emergency use authorization procedures to Russia’s new one-dose Sputnik Light vaccine, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund announced in a statement on Friday. The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) did not specify how many doses of the new vaccine could be distributed in Egypt.

The EDA gave emergency approval for Russia‘s original two-dose Sputnik V jab in February, while the first 210k of tens of mns of doses agreed to be delivered from Russia and manufactured locally were delivered in June.

Egypt will start supplying African nations with vaccines within six weeks, Zayed said. This comes after the African Export-Import Bank in addition to the African Union visited Egypt’s factories and requested to buy vaccines for African nations through the African Vaccine Acquisition Trust (AVAT).

The government is currently in talks with Moderna to manufacture its vaccines locally for export to other parts of Africa. The jabs would be produced at Vacsera’s new facility in Sixth of October, which is currently under construction and expected to produce up to 3 mn jabs per day when fully operational.

The Health Ministry reported 667 new covid-19 infections yesterday, up from 568 the day before. Egypt has now disclosed a total of 300,945 confirmed cases of covid-19. The ministry also reported 39 new deaths, bringing the country’s total death toll to 17,149.