Govt to hit vaccine procurement deal very soon: Faisal

Muhammad Asad

ISLAMABAD: The government is in final stage of discussion for procurement of corona vaccine with Senopharm and Cansino. It was shared with media by SAPM on health Dr. Faisal Sultan during a news conference in Islamabad today.

While providing details on the efforts by the government, he said that1 about one million doses of the vaccines will be available in the country by the end of March.

While discussing a suggested strategy in war against Coronavirus, Dr. Faisal said if we inoculate 70% of those over 18 years, we could achieve herd immunity. The vaccination campaign will cover the whole country through the Expanded Programme of Immunisation, which is responsible for vaccine delivery to supply chain and storage of the doses.

He informed the media that  the Cansinovaccine is in the third stage of clinical trials in Pakistan. Five centres are conducting the trial out of which three have completed it and begun analysing results. According to him, results will be available by early February.

Faisal further added that apart from these two vaccines, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan had given emergency approval to vaccines developed by Sinopharm and Oxford-AstraZeneca.

He clarifed that these arrangements  are made on bilateral basis by the government of Pakistan directly with vaccine-makers.

He said that World Health Organisation’s COVAX facility will also be providing vaccine doses to the country. Around 20% of the population will receive vaccines through this facility.

Dr Sultan said the government had the capacity to procure 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine for use and arrangements are being taken on priority.

The EPI has reviewed its cold chain facilities and can expand them further as well, Dr Sultan stated.

“We had to upgrade our information system because it was developed to record the data of children,” the PM’s aide said, adding that EPI vaccines are delivered to young children only. A resource management system that collects and stores data of health workers is also in place. More than 400,000 health workers have already registered, Dr Sultan said.

The PM’s aide discussed the efficacy and safety profile of Sinopharm and Cansino vaccines. Sinopharm’s shot had proved to be around 80% effective in clinical trials being carried out in different countries.