Covid-19 vaccine batch to Pakistan from COVAX deferred till July

ISLAMABAD: A vaccine consignment to Pakistan from COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) scheduled to be received this month, has been delayed, quoting sources, ARY News reported on Monday.

Sources privy to the situation, have said that Pakistan has been informed about the delay in the vaccine delivery.

Pakistan had to receive the vaccine consignment in the end of June but the delivery has been deferred to the beginning of the next month due to unavoidable reasons, sources said.

Pakistan will receive the third batch of vaccine in July under the GAVI/WHO COVAX vaccine initiative.

The country has already received two consignments under the vaccine initiative. Pakistan received the first batch under the COVAX initiative on May 08 and the second batch on May 28, sources said.

COVAX vaccine initiative will provide third batch of 1.238 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine to Pakistan in July. Another batch of 1.238 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine will be delivered to Pakistan in August, according to sources.

The vaccine initiative has so far provided mostly AstraZeneca Covid vaccine and limited doses of Pfizer’s vaccine.

The vaccine initiative will provide free-of-cost COVID-19 vaccines for the 20 per cent population of Pakistan and the country is expected to get an overall 45.5 million doses of vaccines. Covax is co-led by the World Health Organization (WHO), the Gavi vaccine alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.