Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered relevant authorities to expediteefforts for the procurement and distribution of the two Coronavirusvaccines recently approved by DRAP.

The premier issued these directives during a meeting of the CabinetCommittee on Procurement of COVID-19 Vaccine.——————————

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During the meeting, PM Imran was briefed that DRAP had granted EmergencyUse Approval (EUA) to two COVID-19 vaccines to be used in emergenciesacross the country.

One of the DRAP-approved vaccines has been developed by AstraZeneca, aBritish pharmaceutical company, in collaboration with Oxford Universitywhile the other by state-owned firm China National Pharmaceutical Groupknown as Sinopharm.

PM was told that Pakistan will receive the first consignment of the DRAPapproved COVID-19 vaccines procured directly from the manufacturers as wellas through the COVAX facility in the first quarter of this year.

In this regard, the Cabinet Committee will soon place final orders for theprocurement of Coronavirus with multiple manufacturers. The country hadfulfilled the requirements to become an eligible recipient of theCoronavirus vaccine through the COVAX facility in December last year.——————————

The premier was apprised that all necessary arrangements ranging frominfrastructure to framework and from training to capacity are already inplace in order to initiate a mass vaccination campaign this quarter as well.

Frontline healthcare workers and elderly citizens will be the first toreceive the Coronavirus vaccine during the vaccination campaign, theCommittee told the PM.