Covid-19 vaccine development is in its final stages: Nausheen Hamid

ISLAMABAD: Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of National Health Services Dr Nausheen Hamid Tuesday said that vaccine development was in its final stages where over 3 lakh frontline workers have been identified to carry out vaccination process in first phase which is set to begin from end of February.

Talking to a private news channel, she said government was under close contact with three international firms manufacturing the Covid-19 vaccine, adding, in the first phase, two categories of people would be administered the vaccine included the frontline healthcare workers and people over 65 years of age.

A 'safe and effective' vaccine against novel coronavirus will soon become a reality in Pakistan, she assured.

She said currently the expert panel was also looking at the data of Chinese vaccine manufacturers including Sinopharm, Cansino whose clinical trials were underway and Russian vaccine Sputnik V.

She said potential COVID-19 vaccine development jointly produced by China and Russia has entered its final stages.

The staff members of the COVID-19 vaccination have almost completed their training sessions in line with the guidelines provided by World Health Organisation (WHO), she added.

She explained that the COVID-19 vaccination training programme aims at providing adequate knowledge and skills to health workers, who will be involved in the implementation of the national COVID-19 vaccination campaign, to ensure safe and efficient COVID-19 vaccine administration.

Secretary said that vaccination of the health workers was top priority of the government to provide protection to them against the virus so that they could perform their duty more effectively.

Nausheen Hamid said the Covid-19 situation in country has been stabilized and active cases were reducing.