COVID-19: Booths at Cairo subway to boost vaccination

Cairo: Egyptian health and transport authorities have started installing booths at stations of the sprawling Cairo subway to quicken a vigorous vaccination campaign in the populous country against COVID-19, according to an official.

The operator of the subway service, which crisscrosses the mega-city, in coordination with the Health Ministry has already set up two booths for registering and obtaining vaccination at the Sadat station, a subway hub in Tahrir Square in central Cairo, spokesman for the state Egyptian Company for the Metro Management and Operation Ahmed Abdul Hadi said.

The two are part of 15 such booths planned at the three lines of the subway to facilitate vaccination for commuters, he added in media remarks.

Over 3 million people use the metro daily, easing street traffic in the Egyptian capital.

Starting from Monday, unvaccinated government employees will be denied access to the workplace.

The government has also said that only vaccinated members of the public will be given access to government agencies as of December 1.

Around 26 million people in Egypt have already been vaccinated against COVID-19, including 12 million who are fully vaccinated, according to the Health Ministry.

Egypt, a country of around 100 million population, aims to have 40 per cent of the people vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of this year.

Health authorities Thursday night confirmed 919 new virus cases and 60 more deaths. The latest tally raises the total to 341,188 infection cases and 19,309 related fatalities in this most populous Arab country.