Israel to vaccinate peacekeeping forces in Sinai against covid

Israel will provide the Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) based in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula with coronavirus vaccines.

A request from the US to provide the MFO with some 2,400 vaccines was received by the Israeli Defence Ministry and approved by the relevant legal authorities, reported Reuters.

An MFO official added that the force had requested vaccines for 1,200 personnel and was willing to pay for them but was still awaiting a response from Israel.

The MFO was founded in 1981 to ensure the implementation of a 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.

There are currently more than 1,100 military personnel in the force, including over 450 from the US.

Last week, Egypt received 300,000 doses of a coronavirus vaccine developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm). This was the second batch of the vaccine to be received in the country after an earlier delivery arrived in December.

The North African country also received 50,000 doses of a vaccine developed by AstraZeneca earlier in February as part of its programme to vaccinate health workers.

Egypt began vaccinating frontline medical staff against COVID-19 on 24 January using the Chinese vaccine.

The Egyptian Health Ministry announced yesterday that 588 new coronavirus cases were detected, upping the total number of confirmed cases to 181,829, including 10,404 deaths, since the start of the pandemic.

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