Pakistan mulls local production of Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine in collaboration with Russia

ISLAMABAD: As Pakistan continues its hunt for a COVID-19 vaccine for its population of more than 220 million, the country is expected to start the local production of the Sputnik V vaccine in collaboration with Russia in the coming months.

This announcement was made by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, during a joint press conference alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

“Pakistan is looking forward to the Russian collaboration for the local production of Sputnik V vaccine,” said Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

Read More: First shipment of Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine reaches Pakistan

Speaking on the occasion, the Russian foreign minister said his government had provided 50,000 doses to Pakistan and intended to provide more than 150,000 doses in coming days.

“We have provided 50,000 doses of anti-Covid vaccine to Pakistan and intend to provide 150,000 more,” he announced.

Furthermore, Lavrov termed the relationship between the two countries mutually beneficial and constructive.

Key Takeaways from Delegation Level talks between 🇵🇰 FM @SMQureshiPTI and 🇷🇺 FM #Lavrov.#RussianFMinPakistan pic.twitter.com/TFKu6qmgpo

— Spokesperson 🇵🇰 MoFA (@ForeignOfficePk) April 7, 2021

The Russian Foreign Minister also called on Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad today, where both dignitaries discussed bilateral relations and issues of regional and global importance.

The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) had granted approval to the Russian vaccine for Covid-19, for emergency use in February.

Sputnik V could be administered to a person of 18 and above it. The vaccine requires to store at minus-18 Celsius temperature, according to the sources at DRAP.

Read More; 20pc of Pakistan’s population to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by Dec 2021

On March 18, it emerged that a pharmaceutical company of Pakistan had received the first consignment of privately imported Russian-made Sputnik-V vaccine.

The Russian vaccine has a success ratio of 91.6 percent and made in Russia in collaboration with the government by Moscow’s Gamaleya Research Institute.

The health ministry has set the price of two anti-COVID jabs of the Russian vaccine at Rs 8,449. The packet containing four doses of Sputnik-V is set at Rs 16,560 while 10 and 20 doses would be available at Rs40,555 and Rs 81,110.

Pakistan Covid-19 cases

Coronavirus has claimed 102 more lives in Pakistan during the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll to 15,026.

The latest statistics of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) showed the COVID-19 has claimed 102 more lives and 4,004 fresh infections were reported during the period.

During the period of a day, the total count of active cases was recorded at 64,373 and the positivity rate stood at 9.6 per cent.

The health facilities across the country conducted 41,699 coronavirus detection tests, taking the total number of COVID-19 tests to 10,535,061 since the first case was reported.