ISLAMABAD: Reiterating that Covid-19 vaccine will be provided to the people free of cost, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan on Wednesday said that Pakistan is in advanced level talks with two manufacturers to procure the Covid-19 vaccine.
Addressing a press conference, Dr Faisal said that the two companies are Sinopharm and CanSino. He said that Sinopharm is being used in several countries, and its efficacy is around 80-85 per cent. Meanwhile, CanSino’s Phase-III trails are being conducted in Pakistan, and they are expected to conclude soon, the special assistant said, noting that the results of the vaccine would be available soon.
As many as 17,500 took part in the vaccine trials. The trials in three out of five centres have concluded, while they are near completion in two centres, he said. The statistical analysis of the vaccine has begun and we expect the results at the beginning of February, he said, adding that Pakistan is entitled to 20 million doses on the condition that the vaccine is effective.
Moreover, through the World Health Organisation’s COVAX Facility, Pakistan is expected to get free vaccines for 20 per cent of the country’s population.
To ensure that Pakistan can avail the doses through COVAX, there is a need for government-level talks; and our officials have been in contact with the Chinese officials, said Dr Sultan. “Today, we also met the UK’s ambassador and I assure you that we will announce a positive outcome soon,” he said.
Speaking of the current status of procurement, the special assistant said that in the first quarter (January-March), the government will be able to procure one million vaccine doses. “We believe that we will be able to obtain more doses in the future,” he said.
Talking statistics, he said that the country’s population is 220 million, while the people under 18 are approximately 120 million. “The vaccine is approved for the adult population and if we can inoculate 70% of our population, I expect the country to achieve immunity.”
The technical committee that was tasked to review the coronavirus vaccine candidates has to look at several aspects before opting for one, Dr Sultan said. The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) had approved AstraZeneca and Sinopharm’s vaccines in the last few days, he said.
He said that Pakistan would distribute the vaccine through the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI), and the country is capable of inoculating its entire population, he said. To streamline the process, the government has developed a software to track it. “As many as 400,000 health workers have registered in the resource management system. The training includes thousands of people — frontline health workers, technical staff, logistics, and waste management,” he added.
Speaking further on inoculation phases, he said that frontline health care workers would be the first to receive the vaccine. In the next phase, the rest of the health care workers and people over 65-years of age will receive shots. Then, people above 60 and the population above 18 will be inoculated.
The coronavirus pandemic has claimed 48 more lives in the last 24 hours, surging the overall death toll to 11,103, said the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Wednesday.
According to the NCOC, 1,772 fresh infections were reported on Tuesday and the national tally of cases currently stands at 524,783. As many as 2,046 patients recovered from the virus in a day, while 2,368 patients were stated to be in critical condition.
Overall, 478,517 people have recovered from the deadly disease so far and the total count of active cases is 35,163. A total of 39,604 tests were conducted across the country during the last 24 hours, while 7,481,688 samples have been tested so far.
Punjab’s Covid-19 tally jumped to 150,889 after health authorities reported 573 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday. The virus claimed 16 lives, taking the province’s death toll to 4,476.
Sindh reported 1,162 new coronavirus cases during the past 24 hours, taking the tally to 238,470. According to Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah, 13 more patients succumbed to the deadly virus as the toll surged to 3,843. He further said that 1,044 more patients recovered overnight, taking the total to 216,145.
Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Sindh police department said on Wednesday that at least 199 cops have tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus in just four days. The spokesperson added that a total of 5,246 police officials have contracted the novel coronavirus so far while 614 are currently undergoing treatment. The virus has claimed the lives of 23 police personnel while 4,609 have recovered.
Sindh is the hardest hit province with 237,308 infections recorded since the novel coronavirus was first detected in late February last year. The active number of cases across the province stands at 18,377 as of Tuesday.
Data issued by the provincial government shows 21,629 people have tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus since the beginning of January 2021. In almost a year since the virus was first detected in the province, at least 3,830 people have died of it.
