Not directly, mediated through GAVI! Pakistan to get 16 million doses of India-manufactured COVID 19 vaccine
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Islamabad, Mar 10: Pakistan would get a total of 16 million free doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, that are being manufactured in India, through the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (Gavi) for inoculating 45 million people. The Public Accounts Committee was informed that Pakistan was relying mostly on free doses being provided by the Gavi to inoculate the citizens against corona virus as the Chinese-made vaccine CanSino would cost USD 13 or around Pakistani Rs 2,000 per person.
Pakistan would receive the first batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine made by the Serum Institute of India by mid-March and the rest of it is expected to arrive by June. During the PAC meeting, headed by its Chairman Rana Tanveer Hussain, the officials of the Ministry of National Health Services and the National Institute of Health (NIH) said that Pakistan would get a total of 16 million free doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine, which is being manufactured in India, through Gavi for inoculating 45 million people against the yearly target of 70 million.
The Health ministry and the NIH officials have apprised PAC that the phase three of CanSino vaccine trials was completed for the first time in Pakistan with 75 per cent efficacy, and that a total of 18,000 people were inoculated. It further reported that the health authorities said that no serious buyers from the private sector had come forward as the applications received so far were incomplete.
Pakistan's Parliamentary Secretary Health Dr Nausheen Hamid had said that the govt secured vaccines for 45 million people through the Gavi Covax facility and had taken urgent measures to purchase additional vaccines for 10 million people for which the cabinet approved USD 150 million.