PM directs to accelerate measures for Covid-19 vaccine roll out

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday chaired a meeting on the coronavirus situation in Pakistan and procurement of Covid-19 vaccines, ARY News reported.

The cabinet committee, formed on the procurement of Covid-19 vaccines, briefed the prime minister about the recently approved Covid vaccines in the country.

The committee briefed the meeting that the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) had approved two Covid-19 vaccines – China’s Sinopharm and Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use in Pakistan.

The committee told PM Khan that steps are being taken to procure doses of two approved Covid vaccines as soon as possible.

Read More: Pakistan permits use of British COVID-19 vaccine: sources

Coronavirus vaccines will be available in the country by the first quarter of the ongoing year, PM told.

Speaking on the occasion, PM Imran directed the committee to accelerate measures for the early provision of two coronavirus vaccines recently approved by DRAP.

The meeting was attended by NCOC head Asad Umar, SAPM on Health, Dr Faisal Sultan, Federal Minister for Industries Hammad Azhar and SAPM on Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar.

Read More: Pakistan approves China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use: sources

The Drug Regulatory Authority (DRAP) yesterday authorised China’s Sinopharm vaccine for emergency use in Pakistan, making it the second vaccine to get local approval.

The permission was given in the DRAP registration board meeting after China’s Sinopharm had sought permission from Pakistan for the emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine in the country.

Sinopharm, a state-run Chinese firm, is developing two coronavirus vaccines. Pakistan will purchase 1.2 million doses of the corona vaccine from China.

Pakistan, which is seeing rising numbers of coronavirus infections, granted permission last week to use the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine (AZD1222) in an emergency situation.