Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi urged the need to expedite the vaccination of university students and staff at the education sector at large against the coronavirus, a presidential statement said on Sunday.
These remarks came during a meeting with Presidential Adviser for Health and Prevention Affairs Mohamed Awad Tag El-Din to follow up on the progress made in some of the president-backed healthcare initiatives.
The president emphasised the need to abide by all precautionary measures for the safety of staffers as well as students and their families, according to Egypt’s Presidential Spokesman Bassam Rady.
Egypt is planning to vaccinate 1.6 million employees working in the field of pre-university education along with 4 million university students and around 290,000 university staff before the start of the new school year on 9 October, according to officials.
The Egyptian Cabinet also announced in a presidential directive released in August that vaccination is mandatory for all who work in the education sector as well as students above 18 years of age.
Late in September, Egypt’s Health Ministry Spokesman Khaled Megahed said the ministry will receive university students at 270 vaccination centres specifically designated for students and at the 1,100 centres allocated for general vaccination.
University students can head to these 270 youth centres nationwide and receive a vaccine without registering on the vaccination website beforehand, according to the health ministry.
During Sunday’s meeting, El-Sisi was briefed on the government’s efforts to procure state-of-the-art medical equipment and supplies from Germany to serve the needs of presidential healthcare initiatives, including the ‘Decent Life Initiative’, the medical convoys project, and the ‘100 Million Healthy Lives’ campaign.
The president also instructed that the health ministry’s recently concluded agreement with Germany should include training for Egyptian medical cadres, nursing staff, and first-aiders.