Pakistan expects huge Chinese vaccines delivery this week

Islamabad: Pakistan expects to get more than two million doses of coronavirus vaccine from China in the week starting April 19, officials said.

A Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) spokesperson said China will also gift additional 0.5 million doses to Pakistan. Some 1.5 million vaccines have been purchased while another batch of procured CanSinoBio vaccine will also land in the country in the start of May.

The DRAP spokesperson said Pakistan had reached to an agreement for procurement of China’s CoronaVac vaccine.

Coronavac vaccine has been prepared by the Sinovac Life Sciences of China. The firm has assured providing the vaccine according to the needs of Pakistan. Sinovac will initially provide the Coronavac vaccine to Pakistan on a limited scale.

The DRAP has already issued emergency use permission for CoronaVac vaccine to a private firm of Lahore. The company had also submitted the data of clinical trials of the vaccine to the DRAP.

CoronaVac, inactivated vaccine, comprises of two doses and stored at minus-two to eight degree Celsius temperature, sources said.

China had allowed emergency use of the CoronaVac in July 2020. Phase-I and Phase-II clinical trials of the vaccine were held in China, while phase-III trials were conducted in countries in Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Phase-III trials of CoronaVac vaccine were held in Brazil, Turkey, Indonesia and Philippines. The vaccine found 83.5 percent effective in Turkey, while in Indonesia the effectivity was 65.3 pct.

Scores scores of countries including Mexico, Tunisia, Zimbabwe, Azerbaijan, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines and Thailand have approved CoronaVac for use.

Indonesia had imported its first consignment of the vaccine in December 2020. Sinovac has exported 70 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine to various countries in current month, sources said.

The DRAP of Pakistan has also approved four vaccines for use in the country so far, including China’s Sinopharm and Cansino, Russia’s Sputnik V and Oxford University’s AstraZeneca.

Pakistan has reported 149 deaths in the last 24 hours by novel coronavirus as the number of positive cases has surged to 756,285. The nationwide tally of fatalities has jumped to 16,243.

According to the latest figures by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) 6,127 persons tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 24 hours.

Punjab remains the worst-hit province in terms of deaths followed by Sindh and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Till now 7,430 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in Punjab 4,551 in Sindh, 2,867 in Khyber Pakhtunkhaw, 636 in Islamabad, 433 in Azad Kashmir, 223 in Balochistan, and 103 in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Furthermore 272,197 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 267,572 in Punjab, 105,438 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 69,556 in Islamabad, 20,822 in Balochistan, 15,524 in Azad Kashmir and 5,176 in Gilgit-Baltistan.