Africa-Press – Gambia. China and Egypt cooperation during the COVID-19 pandemic has created a model for Sino-African relations. They have collaborated in vaccine clinical trials and with Beijing’s support, Cairo became the first African country to produce COVID-19 vaccines domestically. Adel El Mahrouky reports.
When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, Egypt, despite its domestic needs, took the initiative to send medical supplies to China in early 2020. The move amplified the definition of the comprehensive strategic partnership between the two countries in the time of crisis. Egypt then joined the phase three clinical trials of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine, a step that later put Egypt among the first countries in the world to roll out the jab. By June 2021 with technology from China’s Sinovac, the first domestic production of Chinese vaccines in Africa took place in Cairo.
DR. AMGAD EL HADAD Specialist of Immunity and Allergies “The pandemic will be over, but the Coronavirus will remain. So collaboration with China is very important. It will change our lives for many years to come. We’ve never held phase three clinical trials before, and we’ve not produced a human vaccine in decades. That wouldn’t have happened without our partnership with China. China provided the biggest support to us.”
This year Sinovac and Egypt’s vaccination arm VACSERA will build the biggest vaccine storage facility in Africa. It has the capacity to hold 150 million doses.
DR. ISLAM ANAN Lecturer of Pharmacoepidemiology Ain Shams University “They’ve been producing more than thirty million jabs and plan to produce 100 million jabs in 2022. It’s very important to have a cooling facility. The cooling facility for vaccines helps in two things. First is to increase the capacity of production, so we have a warehouse and cooling facility to store the vaccines. And secondly is to enhance the access to vaccines throughout Egypt.”
China has so far supplied Egypt with more than 67 million COVID-19 vaccines as a gift and promised additional 60 million jabs in 2022. This year will also see a massive expansion in Egypt’s domestic production to reach 100 million doses. Sinovac is expected to help VACSERA take the first step in producing the raw biomaterial for the COVID-19 vaccine domestically.
LIAO LIQIANG Chinese Ambassador to Egypt “The relationship between China and Egypt is a matter of solidarity, mutual benefit and win-win cooperation for African, Arab and developing countries. We will work together to implement the strategic consensus of the two heads of state, and our anti-epidemic cooperation will include our support for third parties. The development of our various fields and our friendly relationship is constantly pushing to new heights.”
Egypt says it’s on a track to produce one billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines annually. With China’s support the North African nation plans to inoculate 70 percent of its population by mid-2022.
ADEL EL MAHROUKY Cairo, Egypt “China-Egypt anti-epidemic cooperation has continued to grow creating a model for Sino-African relations. After the two countries strongly established their vaccine cooperation, they now move to extend their support to other nations. In February, together they provided 500,000 doses from the Sinovac-Vacsera jab to Palestine, the first usage of Egyptian-made vaccine by a foreign nation. Adel El Mahrouky, CGTN, Cairo.”
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