Covid-19: Pakistan purchases 500,000 Chinese vaccines

Islamabad: Pakistan has received 500,000 more doses of Covid-19 vaccine from Iron Brother China.

A special plane with another consignment of Coronavirus vaccine arrived at Noor Khan Airbase. Pakistan has procured these 500,000 doses from China.

Pakistan reported 98 deaths in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases surged to 778,238. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 16,698.

According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) 5,857 persons tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

The Pakistan Air Force (PAF) plane carried 500,000 Chinese-based company SinoVac’s vaccines in Islamabad, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) announced Thursday afternoon.

The NCOC, in an official statement, said Pakistan has paid for the vaccine doses, clarifying that it was not via donation from China which has so far provided scores of vaccines as a gift.

The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), earlier this month, had granted emergency authorisation to the SinoVac’s vaccine -CoronaVac.

This was the fifth coronavirus vaccine and the third Chinese vaccine to be used in Pakistan. Earlier, Pakistan had granted the authorisation to China’s two-dose Sinopharm and single-dose Convidecia vaccine developed by the Cansino Biologicals. UK’s AstraZeneca and Russian Sputnik V vaccines have also been approved by the DRAP.

The CoronaVac vaccine, despite its low efficacy rate, was allowed by the health authorities to counter the third wave of the pandemic in Pakistan.

An official of the Drug Regulatory Authority said: “DRAP’s registration board in its 304th meeting … gave Emergency Use Authorisation (EUA) to CoronaVac vaccine, developed by the Sinovac Life Sciences Company, based in Beijing, China.”

Pakistan has prepared to acquire at least 100,000 doses of the mRNA Covid-19 vaccine of Pfizer BioNTech through COVAX by June this year.

The country has already procured and installed Ultra-Cold Chain (UCC) refrigerators in Islamabad and all the provinces for storage of the vaccine.

The National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination said the COVAX had assured of providing at least 100,000 doses of mRNA vaccine of Pfizer BioNTech by June this year. On their assurance, Pakistan has acquired and installed 23 UCC refrigerators.