The Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, recently said that China hadapportioned 500,000 doses of its Sinovac vaccine for Pakistan, and thescheduled consignment is reportedly expected to reach Islamabad on 31January.

Meanwhile, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has approvedthe AstraZeneca and Sinopharm vaccines for deployment in case of anemergency, and the clinical tests for Russia’s vaccine ‘Sputnik V’ havebeen completed.

The Federal Minister for Planning, Development & Special Initiatives, AsadUmar, said in a statement that the government plans to approve a thirdCOVID-19 vaccine within the next few days.

DRAP will give the approval to the Russian vaccine for emergency use in thecoming days as trials of the Sputnik V vaccine for COVID-19 have beencompleted in Pakistan.

Vaccine manufacturers in China will be giving preferential access andpricing to Pakistan. CanSino Biologics has offered 20 million shots toPakistan and is awaiting the DRAP’s approval following its successfulclinical results.——————————

Discussing the government’s plan of action, the Vice-Chancellor of theUniversity of Health Sciences (UHS), Dr. Javed Akram, said that Pakistanneeds more than the 500,000 doses originally scheduled for acquisition andthat it is necessary to monitor the individuals who receive the vaccine inorder to interpret the nature of the virus.

The vaccines prepared so far have a 75 percent to 95 percent efficacy rate.