Moderna vaccine expected to arrive in Pakistan tomorrow

Sources in the Ministry of Health said that the Moderna shot has been provided by the United States as aid. While a strategy will be chalked out soon to provide US-made vaccine to those going abroad.

In addition to the Chinese anti-corona vaccines, AstraZeneca and Pfizer are also being used in Pakistan.

Pakistan is expected to get more doses of the UK made coronavirus vaccine in July.

The Biden administration announced shipping 2 million doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine to Peru and 2.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine to Pakistan, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Monday.

Earlier in June, President Joe Biden had announced his plans to allocate 75 per cent of unused Covid-19 vaccines through the UN-backed Covax global vaccine sharing programme, the White House announced on Thursday.

The White House unveiled the allocation for sharing the first 25 million doses with the world. The US has said it plans to share 80 million vaccine doses globally by the end of June. The administration says 25 per cent will be kept in reserve for emergencies and for the US to share directly with allies and partners.

“As long as this pandemic is raging anywhere in the world, the American people will still be vulnerable,” Biden said in a statement. “And the United States is committed to bringing the same urgency to international vaccination efforts that we have demonstrated at home.”

Of the first tranche of 25 million doses, the White House says about 19 million will go to Covax, with approximately 6 million for South and Central America, 7 million for Asia, and 5 million for Africa. The doses mark a substantial — and immediate — boost to the lagging Covax effort, which to date has shared just 76 million doses with needy countries.

COVID-19 infections are decreasing in Pakistan, with 926 new infections reported on average each day. That’s 16% of the peak — the highest daily average reported on June 17.

There have been 958,408 infections and 22,321 coronavirus-related deaths reported in the country since the pandemic began.

Pakistan has administered 159,716,411doses of COVID vaccines so far. While 12,938,721people are partially vaccinated and 3,032,920are fully jabbed against the virus.

 Assuming every person needs 2 doses, that’s enough to have vaccinated about 3.2% of the country’s population.

During the last week reported, Pakistan averaged about 290,700 doses administered each day.

At that rate, it will take a further 140 days to administer enough doses for another 10% of the population.