Author: Louise Pieterse
Last update: August 25th, 2021.
Egypt was one of the first countries in Africa to issue COVID passports for those vaccinated in the country. Egypt’s vaccine passport was announced on July 31st.
The Egyptian Ministry of Health had been issuing paper vaccine certificates with the official “Eagle Stamp”. But this process was slow and ineffective as holders needed to have the certificates translated at various embassies to travel during the pandemic.
How does the Egyptian COVID passport work?
Vaccinated individuals will receive a QR code when they have been vaccinated, which will display their vaccination status when scanned.
The app will display three colors (red, yellow, and green) to indicate whether a person is unvaccinated, partially vaccinated, or fully vaccinated.
The current QR code will only display the basic information of vaccinated people and is not yet available for those who have recovered from COVID or tested negative for the virus.
The COVID passes are secured through the “Secured and Smart Documents Complex”, the new software responsible for generating unique QR codes.
There is also an Egypt Health Passport app in the works that will be released soon on both Android and iOS. The government has yet to announce when the app will be made available.
Is the Egypt COVID pass available to foreigners?
Foreigners can collect a QR code if they have received their vaccinations in Egypt.
There are more than 120 vaccination centers across the country that will be issuing these certificates, but unlike the EU Digital COVID Certificate or NHS Covid Pass, it will not be free of charge.
The QR codes can be collected from the designated vaccine centers and will cost EGP 100 (around USD 6) for Egyptians and USD 10 for foreigners.
Current COVID Situation in Egypt
Three waves of COVID have passed through Egypt, the worst of which was the first one in mid-2020. By late August 2021, the country had recorded close to 290,000 cases of COVID-19 and more than 16,600 deaths.
The number of daily new COVID-19 cases in Egypt dropped dramatically after June 2021 but is beginning to rise again, hovering around 180 new cases per day by late August.
The country has had a slow vaccine rollout. Just over 2,1 million people have been fully vaccinated by late August, only 2.1% of the Egyptian population.
The African Union has secured millions of Johnson & Johnsobn vaccines which began arriving in Egypt in August. Sinovac production in Egypt has also started, marking the first Chinese-African collaboration on vaccine production.