Algeria gets green light to produce Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

Algeria gets green light to produce Sinovac Covid-19 vaccines

Sinovac will be the second Covid-19 vaccine to be manufactured in Algeria as the country announced earlier that Russia's Sputnik V vaccine will also be produced domestically from September.

www.trtworld.com

Sinovac will be the second Covid-19 vaccine to be manufactured in Algeria as the country announced earlier that Russia's Sputnik V vaccine will also be produced domestically from September.

Algeria will manufacture the Chinese coronavirus vaccine Sinovac locally, the government announced, in a country hit by rising cases and constrained by a patchy inoculation rollout.

Chinese experts arrived on Friday to inspect equipment destined for a factory in Constantine, in eastern Algeria, a statement from the pharmaceutical industry ministry said.

Sinovac will be the second coronavirus vaccine to be produced in Algeria, with the Russian vaccine Sputnik V to be produced locally from September, according to authorities.

The Pasteur Institute of Algeria announced on Saturday that it had received 2.4 million doses of Sinovac, bringing the total number of doses of all vaccines received so far by the country to nearly six million.

The figure also includes Sputnik V, Sinopharm and AstraZeneca supplies.


Delta variant surges across the country

But barely 10 percent of Algeria's population of 44 million has so far been inoculated against Covid-19, nearly six months into its vaccination campaign.

The health minister said last month that the country had placed orders for 30 million doses with various producers.

Algeria has so far officially recorded over 160,800 coronavirus infections, including more than 4,000 deaths.

On Friday it recorded its highest number of daily infections yet, with 1,350 cases, driven by the Delta variant, which threatens to overwhelm hospitals.

President Abdelmadjid Tebboune is due to lead a cabinet meeting Sunday that is expected to discuss a new action plan to combat the virus.