Govt has no plan to buy Covid-19 vaccines during current year: NHS Secretary

This was stated by National Health Service (NHS) Secretary Amir Ashraf Khawaja while briefing the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday.

Executive Director of National Institute of Health, Major General Aamir Aamer Ikram, the price of a single dose of Chinese jab is $13.

He added that Pakistan is dependent on international donors and friendly countries, like China for the supply of vaccine.

The NHS secretary informed the PAC that Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm had committed to providing one million doses of Covid-19 vaccine, saying that 0.5m doses had been handed over to Pakistan, out of which around 275,000 doses had been administered to health professionals dealing with Covid-19 patients.

He further stated that the second phase of administering jabs would cover the health officials working in other hospitals and health facilities.

“People aged 65 years and above could also register themselves for vaccination by sending a text message to 1166,” NHS secretary informed.

The NHS secretary said that the country would get 16 million free doses of Indian-made Oxford-AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine throughGlobal Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi), which is a public-private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunization in poor countries.

Courtesy: Dawn