Egyptian Medical Syndicate has sent an official letter to the Ministry of Health and Population, urging for acceleration in vaccinating medical staff against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).
The full vaccination of healthcare professionals would come as soon as possible, amid an increase in numbers of infections and deaths among medical teams.
The syndicate also demanded the availability of the necessary protections for doctors in health facilities. It noted an increase in the number of infections and deaths among doctors in the recent period, with 50 having died from the coronavirus in the past two weeks alone.
It expressed its readiness to provide all forms of assistance to ensure vaccination across Egypt, in order to preserve the lives of the country’s healthcare professionals.
Egypt has been witnessing a recent rise in deaths and infections among doctors, amid a spike in daily reported cases nationwide. A total of 464 doctors have died from the coronavirus since the start outbreak in Egypt in March 2020.
Vaccinations in Egypt started for priority groups in March this year, after it began a vaccination programme among the country’s medical staff in January. The available vaccines are the Chinese-manufactured Sinopharm, and the British-Swedish Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.
Around 1.1 million Egyptians have registered online to receive the vaccine, with the number of those vaccinated estimated at over 320,000 since the launch of the immunisation programme, according to Ministry of Health and Population officials earlier this month.
