1.2m doses of Covid-19 vaccine to be purchased from China: Fawad

Vaccine will be provided free of charge to frontline workers in first quarter of 2021, says federal minister

ISLAMABAD:

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry has said the cabinet committee decided to initially purchase 1.2 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from the Chinese company Sinoform.

The purchased vaccine doses will be provided free of charge to the frontline workers in the first quarter of 2021, he wrote on his official Twitter handle on Thursday.

The federal minister said that the private sector is allowed to import any internationally approved vaccine on its own.

کابینہ کمیٹی نے فیصلہ کیا ہے کہ ابتدائ طور پر چین کی کمپنی سائنوفارم سے ویکسین کی بارہ لاکھ Doses خریدی جائیں گی جو 2021 کی پہلی سہ ماہی میں فرنٹ لائن ورکرز کو مفت مہیا کی جائیں گی، پرائیویٹ سیکٹر اگر کوئ اور بینالاقوامی طور پر منظور شدہ ویکسین امپورٹ کرنا چاہےتو وہ بھی کرسکتا ہے

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) December 31, 2020

 

The decision was taken in the second meeting of the Special Cabinet Committee constituted as an oversight body for procurement of the Covid-19 vaccine.

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 coronavirus 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.

Virus statistics in focus 

Pakistan on Thursday reported 58 Covid-19 related deaths during the last 24 hours, taking country's total death toll to 10,105.

According to the NCOC, most deaths were reported in Punjab, followed by Sindh. The NCOC added that 31 Covid-19 patients died on the ventilator during the last 24 hours.

Out of the 10,105 total reported deaths, there had been about 3,533 deaths in Sindh, 4,013 in Punjab, 1,638 in K-P, 416 in Islamabad.

About 183 deaths had been reported in Balochistan and 101 deaths in G-B and 221 in AJK.

According to NCOC, about 4,960 patients had recovered from the deadly pandemic in the last 24 hours taking total recoveries to 435,073.

The NCOC also reported that a total of 6,696,068 tests had been conducted since the outbreak of the virus. There are about 626 hospitals with Covid-19 facilities with 2,691 patients admitted across the country.