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-Hafeez Shaikh gets Covid infection
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By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: The government will import CanSino vaccine jabs in bulk to package 3 million doses locally, announced Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar on Tuesday.
“We will be getting the bulk vaccine by mid-April from Cansino, from which 3 million doses can be made,” Umar, who is the minister in charge of pandemic operations, said.
The first batch of 60,000 doses of the Chinese vaccine is arriving today (Tuesday), he said in a separate tweet.
“This is the vaccine in which Pakistan participated in phase 3 trials, which was the first time ever that Pakistan had done so for any vaccine.”
The government is also expecting to receive one million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine early next month.
CanSino is one of the four vaccines approved by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), the other three being China’s Sinopharm, Russia’s Sputnik-V, and the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine.
The company had last month released the interim efficacy results of a multi-country trial, which included Pakistan, showing 65.7 percent efficacy in preventing symptomatic coronavirus cases and a 90.98 percent success rate in stopping severe infections. Pakistan is experiencing a third, deadlier wave with a sharp rise in new Covid-19 infections and deaths. It recorded 100 deaths in the last 24 hours, and 4,084 new infections, with a transmission rate of 8.8 percent meaning for every 100 individuals tested, 8.8 percent tested positive for coronavirus.
The country has recorded 14,356 deaths and 663,200 infections since the pandemic began. Around two-thirds of ventilators and 80 percent of oxygenated beds are occupied in hospitals in major cities, according to official data.
Last week, the government announced to have bought more than 1 million doses of Sinopharm and CanSino vaccines, the country’s first purchase from any manufacturer having previously relied on donations. “We have purchased 1 million and 60,000 doses of Sinopharm and CanSino vaccines,” Umar said at the time. “We will be receiving the consignment before the end of March.” “We want them to deliver that 7 million by the end of April, but they have not confirmed this yet. They might have some supply issues,” he added.
Authorities have so far relied on donations and on allocations from the World Health Organisation-backed COVAX/GAVI initiative for developing nations. The first COVAX/GAVI batch of up to 4 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine had been due to be delivered in March but was delayed due to the issues the vaccine was facing worldwide, Umar said. The government launched a vaccination campaign for the general public on March 10, starting with older people.
The drive had begun with a focus on the oldest people in the community, generally over the age of 80, Minister of State for National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan said. The government is aiming to vaccinate around 70 million people out of the 220 million population to reach sufficient community immunity. 100 million people under 18 years of age not yet required to be vaccinated, it says.
Meanwhile, one of the first countries in the world to allow private imports of Covid-19 vaccines for sale on the open market, Pakistan has already received a batch of the Sputnik-V vaccine.
Authorities expect richer people will buy their own vaccination shots through this route, but the commercial administration of vaccines is yet to begin as the government settles pricing issues.
However, in a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan, Transparency International has raised concerns about the private sale of vaccines, saying it will cause inequality and open the door to corruption. Authorities have proposed a price of 8,449 rupees ($54.30) per pack of two injections of Sputnik V and 4,225 ($27.15) per injection for Convidecia, which will be CanSino’s trade name.
According to a mechanism approved by the government, the trade price for an imported vaccine will add a 40 percent mark up to the landed cost, with another 15% for retailers or hospitals.
Moreover, Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiative Asad Umar on Tuesday asked all the provincial ministers to employ all administrative tools for across the board implementation of instructions issued by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) to contain the spread of COVID-19. In his separate letters to the Chief Ministers of Punjab, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, Asad Umar who is also Chairman of NCOC said during the ongoing 3rd wave, the enforcement of SOPs had remained weak.
“Violations of NCOC instructions, specifically in political and social gatherings have been observed,” he said adding that apart from contributing to disease spread, these violations are obstructing effective enforcement of SOPs in other sectors too and sending wrong signals to the general public. “In view of the surge in cases and corresponding pressure on health care system, may I request you to ensure employment of all administrative tools for across the board implementation of NCOC’s instructions. especially those related to public gathenngs,” he added.
On the other hand, Former finance minister Dr Abdul Hafeez Shaikh has tested positive for Covid-19.Minister for Industries and Production Hammad Azhar, who has recently been given the additional charge of the finance minister, confirmed in a Twitter statement that Dr Shaikh has contracted the deadly disease.“Just found out that Dr Hafeez Sh has tested positive for Covid-19,” he tweeted, praying for his swift recovery and good health.
