The Egyptian Ministry of Health announced its contract to purchase 20 million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine against the coronavirus.

According to Reuters news agency, Egypt is expected to receive the first batch of the Chinese vaccine, which includes 500,000 doses, this month.

The Egyptian Ministry of Health indicated earlier this month that it was preparing to produce 80 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine Sinovac. According to Egyptian officials, this agreement strengthens vaccination efforts against the coronavirus. Egypt’s population is about 100 million. Egypt has only received about 1.5 million doses of the Sinopharm and AstraZeneca vaccines against coronavirus. There have been widespread complaints about the slow procedures for granting vaccines.

The Egyptian contract to buy 20 million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine comes despite China’s recognition at the beginning of this month of the weakness of some of its vaccines against the coronavirus. The top disease control official in Beijing said that the efficacy of Chinese vaccines is low, and the government is considering mixing them to enhance their potency.

The Chinese Centre for Disease Control Director, Zhao Fu, announced at a conference in Chengdu, southwest China, that Chinese vaccines do not have very high protection rates. Researchers in Brazil concluded that the efficacy rate of the Chinese Sinovac vaccine in preventing infections with symptoms was as low as 50.4 per cent. In comparison, the effectiveness rate of the Pfizer vaccine was 97 per cent.