NCOC issues guidelines for Chinese Sinovac vaccines

ISLAMABAD: The government of Pakistan via National Command Operation Center (NCOC) has on Friday rolled out guidelines for the storage and jabbing of the Chinese coronavirus vaccine Sinovac of which the country received a shipment of 500,000 doses yesterday, ARY News reported.

The NCOC guidelines said only people above 18-year of age can be administered the Sinovac vaccine and that people infected with the virus can only get their jabs after they have recovered from it.

These guidelines also said people suffering from fever are not to be administered the two-dose Sinovac vaccine.

Second does of the vaccine may be administered not before 28 days of the first dose, NCOC guidelines confirmed.

Those allergic to vaccinations and with comorbidities may not be jabbed with Sinovac, it said.

It said the vaccine will be jabbed on the upper part of the arm and it’s strictly intra-muscle thus shot into veins is restricted.

It said the vaccine may be stored at a temperature ranging from 2- to 8 degree centigrade, and noted that its shelf-life is 12 months. It noted that the vaccine may not be frozen.

There has been little data on how the vaccine affects pregnant women, NCOC said.

It was reproted yesterday that Pakistan received another shipment of 500,000 doses of a Sinovac coronavirus vaccine from China.

A special plane of PAF carrying as many as 500,000 doses of Sinovac vaccine arrived at the Nur Khan Airbase in Islamabad.

This was the fifth coronavirus vaccine and the third Chinese vaccine to be used in Pakistan.

Pakistan on April 18. had reached an agreement for the procurement of China’s CoronaVac vaccine.

Coronavac vaccine has been prepared by the Sinovac Life Sciences of China. The firm has assured providing the vaccine according to the needs of Pakistan, sources said.