ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will be getting bulk Covid-19 vaccine from China’s CanSino Biologics by mid-April, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar revealed on Tuesday.
“We will be getting bulk vaccine by mid april from cansino from which 3 million vaccine doses can be made,” he tweeted.
“The bulk vaccine received will be formulated, sterilized and packed in Pakistan. For this purpose special equipment has been procured and manpower is being trained,” Umar, who also heads the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), said.
We will be getting bulk vaccine by mid april from cansino from which 3 million vaccine doses can be made. The bulk vaccine recieved will be formulated, sterilized and packed in Pakistan. For this purpose special equipment has been procured and manpower is being trained
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) March 30, 2021
Besides, the minister said the first batch of CanSino vaccine procured by the government will be received today. He recalled the country had participated in the vaccine’s phase 3 trials, which, he said, was the first time ever that Pakistan had done so for any vaccine.
Separately, Umar wrote letters to the provinces seeking the strict enforcement of Covid-19 SOPs.
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He said the latest wave of the coronavirus is spreading fast with positivity rate going up.
The minister said the provinces fared well in combating the first and second wave but SOPs are not being enforced properly to fight the third wave. The SOPs devised by the NCOC are being violated with social and political events resulting in the rise of the coronavirus.
