Covid-19 cases rise in Egypt as it hopes to become vaccine-making hub

A warning from Egypt as coronavirus cases rise, which comes during the holy month of Ramadan.

At a news conference in Cairo on Saturday, the health minister said authorities had registered a weekly increase of up to 10 percent in some areas amid a third wave of the pandemic.

"Today's cases in the third wave are increased 10 percent globally in comparison with the second wave. Today and yesterday cases increased about 10 percent and deaths 7 percent," said Hala Zayed. 

"Globally, we are not far away from these because our country is open."

Egypt plans to domestically produce 80 million doses of the Chinese vaccine and 40 million doses of the Russian vaccine annually.

"We are ready with the production lines, Chinese expertise will be arriving in a few days, we will start working to prepare 40 million vaccine doses this year," said Zayed.

"That can be increased annually to cover all needs of Egypt from this vaccine, in addition to the African countries' needs and countries in the region."

She urged people to stick to preventive measures, including wearing face masks and avoiding gatherings during Ramadan.

Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country with over 100 million people, has registered more than 220,000 cases and almost 13,000 deaths. 

But like elsewhere in the world, due to limited testing numbers are expected to be even higher.