Egypt on Thursday announced that it is to manufacture up to 80 million doses of China's Sinovac Biotech's COVID-19 vaccine annually.

Egyptian Health Minister Hala Zayed, lauding the cooperation between both countries, announced the manufacturing of the Chinese vaccines to fulfill the inoculation gap in Egypt and other African countries, according to Reuters.

With a population of 100 million, Egypt has received only 1.5 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. The agreement with China to manufacture additional doses of vaccines could help the country control the virus transmission and contain the pandemic.

Egypt's cabinet and presidency have approved a joint manufacturing agreement to manufacture the vaccines and distribute them in Egypt and other African countries, said the health minister.

The two vaccine production facilities can produce 20 million and 60 million doses annually, respectively.

So far, Egypt has received 650,000 doses of China's Sinopharm vaccine and 854,400 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine. The number of Sinopharm doses received by Egypt would soon rise to one million, Zayed added.

On January 24, Egypt began vaccinating its frontline medical workers with the COVID-19 vaccine. It expanded the vaccination drive on March 4 to include its senior citizens and people with chronic diseases.