Health
Plan afoot to purchase another COVID jab from China
Islamabad: The Pakistan government is planning to further purchase the Chinese anti-covid vaccine Coronavac and for the procurement has signed an agreement with the manufacturer of the vaccine— Sinovac Biotech.
According to the details, the manufacture of the vaccine has assured Pakistan to supply the required doses though the company will initially provide a limited amount of corona vaccine.
Pakistani drug regulator—DRAP has already allowed emergency use of Coronavac shot meanwhile a Lahore based private company has also obtained approval to purchase the said vaccine and got a go-ahead to further administer the jab.
According to a private media outlet, Health ministry sources said, that the inactivated vaccine consists of 2 doses and is stored at minus 2 to 8 degrees.
China earlier authorized the emergency use of Coronavac in July 2020, with Phase One and Two clinical trials conducted in China, while Phase 3 trials were conducted in Latin America, Europe, Asia, Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
In Turkey's Phase 3 trials, the vaccine proved to be 83.5% effective, while in Indonesia's Phase 3 trials, the vaccine proved 65.3% efficacy.
Mexico, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Thailand have already approved the Sinovac Biotech’s vaccine.
While Indonesia imported the first batch of Coronavac vaccine in December 2020.
The company has already provided 70 million doses of the vaccine to countries.
China's Coronavac vaccine was 67 per cent effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 and 80 per cent at preventing death, according to real-life results unveiled from Chile's inoculation campaign.
Pakistan on Sunday reported 149 deaths in one day as the third wave of the pandemic continued to rage across the country.
According to National Command and Operations Center (NCOC), around 6,127 cases of coronavirus were reported while 149 people succumbed to the disease in the last 24 hours, taking the total death toll to 16,243.
The total number of confirmed cases reached 756,285. As many as 659,483 patients have recovered from the disease with 4,446 critical cases.