Around 3m doses of vaccines to be imported next week: Corona vaccination process resumes after days of disruption

LAHORE: The vaccination process in major cities of the province has resumed after days of disruption due to a shortage of Covid-19 jabs.

The Chinese SinoVac and Sinopharm vaccines are available at the vaccination centres, sources in the primary and secondary health care department said. The Chinese consignment has been received and the situation will be normal in coming days, the sources added.

On the other hand, those needing the AstraZeneca jab will have to wait for some more days. On Monday, a large number of people thronged the Expo Centre for getting AstraZeneca vaccine but they returned home with disappointment due to non-availability of the same.

According to the Lahore deputy commissioner, Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines are available at the vaccination centres while those needing the AstraZeneca jab will have to wait more. In other Punjab cities, including Bahawalpur and Multan, vaccination started after the country received a shipment of the Sinovac vaccine from China, the sources said.

On the other hand, Pfizer Pakistan and BioNTech SE Monday announced an agreement with the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to supply 13 million doses of their Covid-19 Vaccine (BNT162b2). Deliveries are planned during course of 2021.

“We are deeply honoured to work with the Pakistan government and to marshal our scientific and manufacturing resources toward our shared goal of bringing a Covid-19 vaccine to the people of Pakistan as quickly as possible,” Syed Muhammad Wajeehuddin, Country Manager Pfizer Pakistan, said. “In the face of this global health crisis, Pfizer’s purpose – breakthroughs that change patients’ lives – has taken on an even greater urgency. Our hope is that our vaccine will help make this happen,” he said.

Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine, which is based on BioNTech’s proprietary mRNA technology, was developed by both BioNTech and Pfizer, and the marketing authorization holder is BioNTech in the United States, Europe, UK, Canada, and other countries.

Parliamentary Secretary for Health Ministry Dr Nosheen Hamid said on Monday that the government is taking various steps, to make the vaccination process easy and accessible for the general public while 400,000 people would be vaccinated daily from next week.

She said the target of the government was to vaccinate over 70 million people by the end of this year. Around three million doses of anti-Covid vaccines would be imported next week, Dr Hamid said.

Moreover, Punjab has reported 95 coronavirus cases and nine deaths during the last 24 hours taking the tally of virus cases to 345,065 and the death toll is 10,642. On the other hand, as many as 829 coronavirus recoveries were reported during the last 24 hours taking the total number of recoveries to 893,148 with recovery rate of 94.1 percent.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021