Pakistan has managed to secure 17 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine under the global Covax alliance and seven million will be ‘Made In India’ AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccines.
Pakistan will also start its Covid19 vaccination drive that begins next week, reports The Times of India.
COVAX led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organization (WHO) has been formed guarantee fair and equitable access of vaccine for every country in the world.
In 2020, Pakistan signed up for this vaccine sharing scheme which is being coordinated by WHO to support lower-income countries.
“Though AstraZeneca is being prepared in India, it will come through Covax, an international alliance which has announced free vaccines for 20% of Pakistan’s population. DRAP (Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan) has already registered both Sinopharm and AstraZeneca,” PM Imran Khan’s special assistant on health Dr Faisal Sultan said on Sunday (31 January).
Pakistan will launch its vaccination drive against Covid19 by inoculating health workers with nearly 5 lakh Covid19 vaccines made by China’s National Pharmaceutical Group (SinoPharm).
However, many in Pakistan have already agreed on one aspect of the vaccination drive which is, the military will get the top priority and it will take a long time for the poor people to have access to the vaccine.
India has completed vaccinating 37 lakh healthcare workers with the Central Government aiming to vaccinate over 30 crore high-risk groups by July that will include healthcare workers, frontline workers and the elderly and those with any comorbidities.
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