ISLAMABAD: In the wake of the decision to give vaccine on priority to students going abroad for studies and those leaving for employment, Parliamentary Secretary for National Health Services Nausheen Hamid Tuesday said that Pakistan nationals living or working abroad could get Moderna shots on producing either a work permit or passport with a valid visa stamped on it.
Talking to a news channel, Hamid said that around 2.5 million doses of Moderna had arrived from the United States and will be used primarily to vaccinate expatriates.
To a question, she said the vaccine would be available in special centres for dual nationals.
Hamid said that more than three million doses of PakVac — developed by CanSino and packaged at the National Institute of Health in Islamabad — would be prepared this month and its single dose would be sufficient to protect against Covid-19.
NIH MONITORING VARIANTS:
Meanwhile, the National Institute of Health officials were monitoring different variants of the coronavirus, a spokesperson of the Ministry of National Health Services said.
The mutants were being monitored with genome sequencing of the test samples.
“In May and June, the presence of different variants in the country was confirmed,” the spokesperson said.
The presence of Alpha, Beta and Delta variants — first detected in the UK, South Africa and India, respectively — has been confirmed in Pakistan.
The institute is following the protocols with regard to foreign-origin coronavirus cases, the spokesperson added.
