Egypt health minister updates on COVID-19 situation

Egypt's top health official on Saturday commented on rising coronavirus infections in the country.

Speaking at a news conference in Cairo, Health Minister Hala Zayed said authorities had registered a weekly increase of up to 10 percent in some areas amid a third wave of the pandemic. She didn’t provide numbers.

Zayed urged people to stick to preventive measures, including wearing face masks and avoiding gatherings during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

She also announced that the country was preparing production lines to make some 40 million coronavirus vaccines this year, with help from Chinese experts.

Zayed said the production could be "increased annually to cover all needs of Egypt", as well as "African countries' needs and countries in the region".

Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country with over 100 million people, has reported more than 220,650 confirmed cases, including 12,959 deaths.

However, the actual numbers of COVID-19 cases, like elsewhere in the world, are thought to be far higher, in part due to limited testing.