Islamabad: Pakistan is set to receive the 1 million doses of Sinopharm and CanSino coronavirus vaccines bought from China. The tranche, which is expected to arrive by end of March, will be the first purchased vaccines. Pakistan is currently administering the 1.5 million Sinopharm doses donated by China. The government is vaccinating frontline healthcare workers and citizens over the age of 60 free of charge.
“We have purchased 1 million doses of Sinopharm and 60,000 of CanSino vaccines,” said Minister Asad Umar, spearheading the national fight against the pandemic operations. The government hopes to procure another 7 million doses from the same Chinese companies by the end of April. The batch of 4 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine due to be delivered to Pakistan by COVAX has been delayed for now. Pakistan is aiming to vaccinate around 70 million of its total 220 million population to reach community immunity.
Pakistan’s long-time ally China has assured to provide another batch of COVID-19 vaccines soon. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his Pakistani counterpart Shah Mahmood Qureshi during a phone call that over 100 countries have contacted China for vaccines, but Beijing will prioritise meeting Islamabad’s needs. Foreign Minister Qureshi thanked China for gifting 1.5 million doses of vaccine, saying it had played a critical role in saving valuable human lives.
PM’s aide on health Dr Faisal Sultan has said that “several million additional doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are in the pipeline for April.” Dr Sultan also spoke to World Health Organisation (WHO) chief Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus regarding the vaccine supply chain to maintain adequate and consistent availability across the world and thanked him for “support and assurance.”
Pakistan has recorded a sharp spike in COVID-19 infections during the third wave of coronavirus. Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi also tested positive on Saturday. The country has recorded 637,042 coronavirus cases and nearly 13,965 deaths, with 3,301 infections and 30 deaths reported in the past 24 hours.
Private import of vaccines
Pakistan government has allowed private imports of COVID-19 vaccine amid the surge in infections. The country has already received a batch of 50,000 Russian Sputnik V vaccines and expects to get a separate batch of 10,000 Chinese CanSino vaccines for commercial sale this week.
Transparency International Pakistan had asked the prime minister to review the policy of allowing private import of vaccine and cancel it altogether, to encourage administering the vaccine free of cost to all citizens. The Ministry of National Health Services (NHS), however, said the federal government’s decision to allow the private sector to import vaccines knowingly as the free-of-cost national vaccination program currently prioritizes healthcare workers and the elderly population. The privately imported vaccines will not be sold or distributed in the market and will only be administered at the hospitals that conducted their clinical trials in Pakistan, officials said.
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