Egypt Speeds Up Vaccination for University Students

Arab World

October 1st, 6:35am

Cairo - Waleed Abdul Rahman

A woman receives a dose of the vaccine against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at one of Youth centers that are open to citizens to get COVID-19 vaccines without prior registration in an effort to boost the country's vaccination drive, in Cairo, Egypt, September 27, 2021. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El Ghany

The Egyptian Health Ministry on Thursday appealed to all university students to register on the official vaccination website or visit the nearest youth vaccination centers to receive their jab against the coronavirus. Health Minister Hala Zayed announced that 82,000 university students were vaccinated Wednesday alone, out of a total of 120,000 students who registered on the website. She said the ministry set up 1,100 vaccination centers nationwide, including 270 centers equipped to welcome youth. Egypt continued to register an increase in the number of daily coronavirus infections with 738 new cases recorded in the last 24 hours, raising the total number of confirmed infections in the country to 303,783. Health Ministry Spokesman Khaled Megahed said 31 coronavirus-linked deaths were recorded, taking the nationwide death toll to 17,294 since the start of the pandemic. As many as 809 cases were discharged from isolation hospitals after receiving the necessary medical care, pushing the total number of recovered cases in the country to 256,467, the spokesman added. Megahed also confirmed that all university students can visit the nearest center among the 270 youth centers that have been equipped to vaccinate university students, without pre-registering on the website or waiting for the text message to specify the date of receiving the vaccine. He said registration and vaccination are done immediately in those centers. Meanwhile, Higher Education Ministry Spokesperson Adel Abdel-Ghafar said there is an urgency to speed up the vaccination of university students. “There are more than 300 vaccination points designated to inoculate students at all Egyptian universities,” he said, adding that receiving the vaccine is not optional. In the past two days, Egypt received doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine and is expected to welcome a new batch of the vaccine next Monday.

from Asharq AL-awsat https://english.aawsat.com/home/article/3220001/egypt-speeds-vaccination-university-students