Govt decides to buy coronavirus vaccine from China

ISLAMABAD: In a major development, the government has decided to purchase coronavirus vaccine from brotherly country China, ARY News reported.

It was decided during a meeting of the special committee on procurement of COVDI-19 vaccine chaired by the Federal Minister for Planning and National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) chief Asad Umar in Islamabad today.

The meeting has decided to buy the coronavirus vaccine from Chinese state-owned pharmaceutical company Sinopharm.

Taking to the social networking website, Twitter, Asad Umar announced that the cabinet had given nod to procurement of more than one million coronavirus doses which will cover all frontline health workers.

Held meeting of cabinet committee for procurement of vaccines. Authorized procurement of more than 1 million vaccines which will cover all frontline health workers, as soon as DRAP expert committee approves vaccine. Target is to deploy these vaccines within 1st quarter of 2021.

— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) December 30, 2020

“Target is to deploy these vaccines within 1st quarter of 2021,” he added

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry, Minister of Industries and ProductionHammad Azhar,  Special Assistant on National Health Services Dr. Faisal Sultan and others were present in the meeting.

Read More: Govt not to compromise on quality of COVID-19 vaccine: Dr. Faisal

Earlier on December 25, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan had said that the government will prefer to import COVID-19 vaccine based on transparent scientific research data.

Talking to a private news channel, Dr. Faisal said that major international pharmaceutical companies were at the forefront of developing the coronavirus vaccine, but the company that will present scientific research data in a transparent manner will be contacted in this regard.