‘Govt does not plan to buy vaccines anytime soon’

“The government aims to handle the COVID-19 health challenge through herd immunity and donated vaccines as currently; it has no strategy to buy more vaccines,” National Health Service (NHS) Secretary Amir Ashraf Khawaja has told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC).

According to reports, National Institute of Health Executive Director Maj Gen Aamir Ikram has informed that a single dose of Chinese vaccine CanSino costs $13 which is why Pakistan was depending on international donors and friendly countries, like China to fulfil its vaccine requirement.

Read more – Govt announces free vaccine for all citizens

The NHS secretary further told PAC that Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm had committed to give one million doses of the virus vaccine [to Pakistan], adding that 0.5m doses had already been handed over. Out of those 0.5 million doses,  around 275,000 doses had been administered to healthcare workers fighting against COVID-19 on the frontlines.

He said the second phase would include the health officials working in hospitals and other health facilities, adding that people aged 65 and above could also register themselves for vaccination via a text message to 1166. According to him, the process of vaccination to aged people was due to start by March 5 but was delayed because the consignment was delayed.

Khawaja also said that Pakistan plans to vaccinate 70 million people this year.

Read more – Will Pakistan get enough COVID-19 vaccines?

According to the NHS secretary, Pakistan will also get 16m free doses of Indian-made Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine through Gavi that would cover upto 20% of the population of Pakistan. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (Gavi) is a public-private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunisation in poor countries.

In response to a question by the PAC chairman, the secretary said Pakistan would receive the first batch of AstraZeneca vaccine made by Serum Institute of India by the mid of March and the rest was expected to arrive in the country by June.

He said that another Chinese company had conducted the phase-three trial of CanSino vaccine in Pakistan, adding that a total of 18,000 people were inoculated and the vaccine’s efficacy stood at 85pc.

The PAC chairman highlighted that some people had some concerns regarding the side effects of the vaccine and suggested that the top leadership of the country should get vaccinated first to remove doubts in the general public’s mind.

In response to a question by Hina Rabbani Khar, the NHS secretary said that despite the government’s offer to the private sector to buy the vaccine, no serious buyers had so far shown interest. The government had earlier allowed the private sector to import vaccine to cater to the needs of those people who could afford its price.

According to him, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan has so far received applications only from three companies for the import of vaccines, but their applications were rejected because they did not give any detail and specification of the vaccines they intended to import.