CAIRO, Sept. 23 (Xinhua) — Egypt will inaugurate the second production line for manufacturing China’s Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines in five weeks, said Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed on Thursday.

The vaccines are being produced by Egypt’s state-owned vaccine maker VACSERA in the Agouza district of Giza province near the Egyptian capital of Cairo, under an agreement that it signed with the Chinese biopharmaceutical company Sinovac.

“We have already received raw materials for manufacturing 15 million doses and we’re currently receiving those for another 15 million doses,” said Zayed during a joint press conference with German Ambassador to Cairo Frank Hartmann.

On July 18, visiting Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi and his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry attended a ceremony marking the joint production of 1 million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine in Egypt, which is the first country on the African continent to cooperate with China in the COVID-19 vaccine production.

“We currently provide our vaccination centers with 2 million doses per week of the VACSERA-Sinovac vaccine,” said Zayed, noting that Egypt will have produced 80 million doses of the vaccine by the end of December.

The number of Egypt’s vaccination centers has been expanded to 850 nationwide, including three large ones that are able to accommodate 60,000 citizens per day, according to the minister.