Egypt has approved the use of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by Chinese pharma giant Sinopharm, the health minister said.

The first batch of the vaccine was delivered in December, with further doses expected this month.

Each batch of the vaccine consists of 50,000 doses, and the first group to receive it will be medical workers.

Egypt plans to purchase 40 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.

Egypt has recorded more than 140,000 cases of the covid-19 disease, including 7,800 deaths.

The Sinopharm vaccine has been approved for emergency use in a few countries and the company is still conducting late-stage clinical trials in 10 nations.

Egypt, the Arab world's most populous country, has seen a rise in infections in recent weeks amid warnings by the government about a second wave.

The Sinopharm vaccine has been approved for emergency use in a few countries and the company is still conducting late-stage clinical trials in 10 nations.

Sinopharm's vaccine relies on a killed virus, similar to how polio immunisations work.

Vaccines being developed by Western companies, like the Pfizer/BioNTech shot, target the virus' spike protein using Ribonucleic acid, or RNA.