Pakistan govt liaising with coronavirus vaccine manufacturers, NCOC told

The federal government has informed the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) that it is liaising with leading manufacturers of the novel coronavirus vaccines including those from China.

The officials said they are regularly reviewing developments including data from phase three of the COVID-19 vaccine trials. The final decision about the availability of the vaccine for Pakistan would be determined through these steps.

Coronavirus vaccines

It may be noted here that Pakistan signed up for the United Nation's COVAX Facility, a global initiative aimed at equitable access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines worldwide.

There are also multiple local and China-made vaccine trials being conducting across the country. The human trials of a vaccine being developed by Chinese Company CanSino Biologics Inc started on September 22 and has over 13,000 volunteers across Pakistan.

In November, Federal Minister for Planning and Development and the NCOC chief Asad Umar said that the federal cabinet has approved procurement of the vaccines, which are expected to arrive sometime between January and March next year.

Since the start of December, Pakistan has reported 62,332 coronavirus infections with a daily average of 2,883.27. The national tally has surged to 462,814 with at least 37,905 active cases.

Government data showed 1,466 people have died of COVID-19 in the past 22 days with an estimated 66.63 deaths per day, bringing the national death toll to 9,557.

Pakistan has one of the highest recovery rates in the world as 89.74% of the patients have survived coronavirus. A total of 415,352 recoveries have been reported so far.