On 26 December, Egypt’s health ministry announced that Covid-19 vaccinations were mandatory for over-18s, imposing one of the strictest vaccine mandates in the world on its population.

Investigations by the Egyptian authorities have exonerated the country’s health minister, Hala Zayed, in a bribery case involving senior ministry officials, local media reported yesterday.

Egypt Public Prosecutor, Hamada El-Sawy, ordered on Wednesday the referral of four defendants to criminal trial in the case known to the media as “the health ministry bribery case”.

Egypt’s Supreme Council of Universities decided on Sunday to prohibit students who had not been vaccinated against Covid-19 to access first term exams due to take place in universities next month, Egyptian media have reported.

The spokesperson for the Ministry of Health Hossam Abdel-Ghaffar announced on Sunday that the ministry is working on a multi-stage plan confront the ‘omicron’ coronavirus strain.

Egypt’s Health Ministry said 919 new coronavirus cases were detected on Thursday, upping the total number of infections since the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country to 360,435.

Acting Egyptian Minister of Health and Population Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar announced some measures to confront the new coronavirus variant.

A third booster shot of coronavirus vaccine will be administered to the elderly and medical teams as well as groups who are most at rick of infection with the virus, Health Ministry Spokesman Hossam Abdel Ghaffar said on Wednesday.

The Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar announced on Monday that all university students will be required to be vaccinated in order to attend exams at the end of the current academic year’s first semester.

On Wednesday, Egypt recorded the highest death toll from the coronavirus infection since mid-July 2020; exceeding 70 cases a day for the first time since then.