Cabinet panel decides to pre-book Chinese vaccine

A special cabinet committee on Covid Vaccine decided on Wednesday to pre-book a Covid-19 vaccine developed by China’s state-owned Sinopharm company and linked its decision to the emergency-use approval by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP).

The decision comes as the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) developed a National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) to ensure efficient supply chain, management and administration of the vaccine.

The decisions came as the death toll from the coronavirus, which first emerged in the country about 10 months ago, topped 10,000 with 55 more fatalities during the last 24 hours. The NCOC said that highest death toll on Tuesday was recorded in Punjab, followed by Sindh.

The special cabinet committee met here with Planning Minister Asad Umar, who also heads the NCOC, the nerve centre of the government’s unified campaign to stem the spread of coronavirus. It reviewed the procurement of a vaccine for frontline health workers and overall related situation.

The committee was apprised that a number of countries have pre-booked Covid-19 vaccine based on preliminary or incomplete results in order to ensure the timely availability of vaccines for their populations. In some situations, vaccines were pre-booked even in developing stages.

In line with global practices, the committee decided to pre-book Covid-19 vaccine from Sinopharm. Once approved and procured, the government will provide free-of-charge vaccine for all frontline health workers in the first quarter of 2021.

The committee was informed of the deliberations of an expert committee formed by DRAP, who are in process of reviewing and analysing available data from clinical studies performed so far. It was also decided that other manufacturers of the vaccine would also be engaged for future bookings.

The special cabinet committee reiterated that the private sector would also be encouraged to approach DRAP and follow the laid-down procedures for emergency use authorisation of any available and safe Covid-19 vaccine.

The committee has been constituted as an oversight body for procurement of the Covid-19 vaccine. Its members include Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry and Industries Minister Hammad Azhar.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar and Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Faisal Sultan also attended the meeting on invitation.

Separately, the NCOC has developed the NIMS in collaboration with the health ministry, the National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) and the National Information Technology Board (NITB) to ensure efficient supply chain, management and administration of Covid-19 vaccine.

The system will enable automated phase-wise registration of citizens for Covid-19 vaccine through SMS/internet, based on CNIC numbers. The immunisation mechanism will be intimated to the citizens shortly. NIMS will be made available by mid-January.

In the NCOC meeting – held to review the overall pandemic situation in the country – was informed also that the federal government was in close liaison with the world’s leading Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers for its early availability in Pakistan.

The participants were informed that the country’s current positivity ratio stood at 5.92%. The highest positivity ratio was observed in Karachi at 13.84%, followed by Hyderabad 8.79% and Swat 7.89%. The mortality ratio was 2.1%.

On Wednesday, the NCOC said in its daily update, Pakistan’s Covid-19 death toll reached 10,047 as 55 more patients succumbed to the disease. It added that 2,155 new infections were also registed in the past 24 hours, raising the total caseload to 477,240.

(WITH INPUT FROM APP)