Gavi to provide Egypt with 20% of its coronavirus vaccines

Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed announces details of Egypt's vaccination campaign against COVID-19 in Cairo. (Reuters/File)
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Updated 13 January 2021
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Gavi to provide Egypt with 20% of its coronavirus vaccines

  • Zayed referred to three vaccines: AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Pfizer-BioNTech

CAIRO: Egyptian Minister of Health and Population Hala Zayed has announced that Egypt is negotiating with the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi) to provide 20 percent of its coronavirus vaccines.

Zayed referred to three vaccines: AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Pfizer-BioNTech.

“We are currently in talks with the Chinese ambassador regarding the Chinese vaccine … within a few days, the supply will start,” Zayed said.

“We are also contacting Pfizer to obtain its vaccine and the file has been submitted for registration in Egypt,” she added.

The minister said that Egypt expects to start receiving coronavirus vaccines from Gavi in the coming weeks.

The minister added that Gavi will deliver 20 percent of Egypt’s needs and that urgent deliveries will arrive in the first quarter of the year.

She said that the vaccines may arrive in late January or early February, which are likely to be the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Zayed said that there is a 21 percent decrease in the daily average of new coronavirus cases since the beginning of this month, compared to the last week of December.

She pointed out that the rate of suspected cases in hospitals has decreased by 15 percent.

She added that the incidence of cases in intensive care has decreased by 8 percent, with the average recovery rate increasing by 5 percent.

Zayed said that the number of deaths in the second wave of the coronavirus is 50 percent fewer than the first wave. She added that Egypt has witnessed a decrease in the daily rate of new cases over the past few days.


UN has permission for 100 more aid trucks to enter Gaza, official says

Updated 59 min 32 sec ago
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UN has permission for 100 more aid trucks to enter Gaza, official says

GENEVA: The United Nations said on Tuesday it has received permission to send “around 100” trucks of aid into the war-shattered Gaza Strip, as humanitarian assistance trickled back in to the territory.
“We have requested and received approval of more trucks to enter today, many more than were approved yesterday,” Jens Laerke, spokesman for UN Office for Coordination for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), told reporters in Geneva, adding that “we expect, of course, with that approval, many of them, hopefully all of them, to cross today to a point where they can be picked up and get further into the Gaza Strip for distribution.”


Army, paramilitaries clash near Sudan capital

Updated 34 min 45 sec ago
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Army, paramilitaries clash near Sudan capital

  • The army said its operation which began on Monday was aimed at driving the paramilitaries from their last positions in Khartoum state

KHARTOUM: Clashes erupted on Tuesday between the Sudanese regular army and rival paramilitaries in Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city, with the army calling the fighting part of a "large-scale" offensive.

An AFP correspondent at the scene said explosions rang out in the area, where the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had retreated after losing control of the Sudanese capital in March.

The army said its operation which began on Monday was aimed at driving the paramilitaries from their last positions in Khartoum state.

"We are pressing a large-scale operation and we are close to clearing the whole of Khartoum state from dirty thugs," military spokesman Nabil Abdallah said in a statement.

The war since April 2023 has pitted the army headed by Sudan's de facto leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan against the RSF under his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo.

The fighting comes as both the army and the RSF are attempting to establish their own governments.

On Monday, army chief Burhan has tapped a former United Nations official, Kamil Idris, as a new prime minister -- a move seen by analysts as an attempt to gain international recognition and present a functioning civilian-led government amid the ongoing war.

The African Union on Tuesday welcomed the appointment, calling it "a step toward inclusive governance" and expressing hope that the move will "restore constitutional order and democratic governance in Sudan".

The RSF announced in April it would form a rival administration, a few weeks after signing a charter in Kenya with a coalition of military and political allies.

In recent weeks, the RSF has staged multiple drone attacks on areas around the country, including Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast, the seat of the army-aligned government since the war began.

Omdurman, which is situated just across the River Nile from Khartoum, has been a focal point of fighting in recent days.

This week, a days-long electricity blackout hit the whole Khartoum state, following drone strikes blamed on the RSF on three power stations in Omdurman.

Medical charity Doctors without Borders (MSF) said on Sunday that the power outages had disrupted health services at the city's major hospitals.

"The magnitude of these drone attacks represents a major escalation in the conflict, with alarming implications for civilian protection," the UN's human rights expert on Sudan, Radhouane Nouicer, said in a statement on Monday.

"The recurrent attacks on critical infrastructure place civilian lives at risk, worsen the humanitarian crisis, and undermine basic human rights."

The army has meanwhile launched attacks in areas controlled by the RSF in the country's south, trying to claim territory and cut off rival supply lines.

The Emergency Lawyers, a monitoring group which has documented atrocities on both sides, on Sunday accused the army of killing 18 civilians, including four children, in an attack on Al-Hamadi village in South Kordofan state last week.

The war has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million and sparked what the United Nations describes as the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The conflict has carved up Sudan, with the army controlling the north, east, and centre, while the RSF dominates nearly all of Darfur and parts of the south.


EU agrees to lift all economic sanctions on Syria: diplomats

Updated 54 min 26 sec ago
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EU agrees to lift all economic sanctions on Syria: diplomats

BRUSSELS: EU countries on Tuesday gave a green light to lifting all economic sanctions on Syria in a bid to help the war-torn country recover after the ouster of Bashar Assad, diplomats said.
Ambassadors from the EU’s 27 member states struck a preliminary agreement for the move, which should be formally unveiled by foreign ministers meeting in Brussels later in the day, diplomats said.


Malnutrition in Gaza could rise exponentially, UNRWA official says

Updated 20 May 2025
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Malnutrition in Gaza could rise exponentially, UNRWA official says

  • Malnutrition rates in Gaza have risen during a more than 11-week Israeli blockade
  • Israel cleared nine trucks of aid on Monday to enter Gaza

GENEVA: Malnutrition rates in Gaza have risen during a more than 11-week Israeli blockade and could rise exponentially if food shortages continue, a health official at the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA said on Tuesday.

“I have data until end of April and it shows malnutrition on the rise,” Akihiro Seita, UNRWA Director of Health, told a Geneva press briefing.

“And then the worry is that if the current food shortage continues, it will exponentially increase, and then get beyond our control.”

Israel cleared nine trucks of aid on Monday to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing although aid workers said just five entered.


Israel’s Elbit Systems posts profit jump on Gaza war, rising defense budgets

Updated 20 May 2025
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Israel’s Elbit Systems posts profit jump on Gaza war, rising defense budgets

  • More than 32 percent of Elbit’s revenue came from Israel, where the country has been fighting Hamas

TEL AVIV: Israel’s largest defense firm Elbit Systems reported higher first-quarter profit on Tuesday, boosted by sales to Israel’s military during its war against Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza and as global defense spending rises.
Elbit said it earned $2.57 per diluted share excluding one-time items in the first quarter of 2025, up from $1.81 a year earlier.
The results were boosted by a 20 percent increase in aerospace sales, largely of precision guided munitions from which revenue rose 22 percent to $1.9 billion.
More than 32 percent of Elbit’s revenue came from Israel, where the country has been fighting Hamas since October 7, 2023. The company has supplied munitions, drones, guided rocket systems, reconnaissance capabilities and other systems.
As numerous global conflicts boosted national defense budgets, Elbit’s backlog of orders reached $23.1 billion. Some 66 percent of the backlog is from outside Israel, while 51 percent of the orders are scheduled to be fulfilled during 2025 and 2026.
“Elbit is well positioned to capture and benefit from the opportunities of increasing defense budgets globally and particularly in Europe,” said CEO Bezhalel Machlis. “We are continuing to invest in increasing our production capacity and optimizing our supply chains in order to address our backlog and the high demand for our products.”
Elbit said it would pay a quarterly dividend of 60 cents a share, the same as in the fourth quarter.