-55 deaths, 1,974 cases reported
-Abbottabad sees highest positivity ratio
By Ajmal Khan Yousafzai
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is in contact with six international COVID-19 vaccine producing companies, officials in the health ministry said on Monday.
According to officials within the federal health ministry, the country is in contact with six companies to get COVID-19 vaccine including two from China, one each from Russian and United Kingdom. “The government is in talks with CanSino and Sinopharm from China, Oxford University and Sputnik V from Russia,” they said adding that in total they are in contact with six companies. The sources said that they were also mulling over the profiles of the six coronavirus vaccines. “We have two major demands from the companies providing COVID-19 vaccine which included that it should have an Emergency Use Authorization [EUA] certificate from WHO and should provide it on an immediate basis to the country,” they said.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr. Faisal Sultan on December 17 said that COVID vaccine will be available in Pakistan in February or March 2021. Speaking to reporters, Dr Faisal Sultan said that coronavirus vaccine would be available in Pakistan next year in February or March and it will be free for all the citizens.
Dr Faisal Sultan had also confirmed that the Covid-19 vaccine to be procured by the government would be vaccinated free of cost to the Pakistani public. He had assured that it will be procured keeping in view its safety, efficacy and effectiveness. COVID situation, the countrywide positivity ratio of fresh Covid-19 cases was 6.13 per cent in the past 24 hours, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) was informed on Monday.
Abbottabad recorded the highest positivity ratio at 15.95 per cent, followed by Karachi at 14.81pc, Hyderabad 14.47pc, Mirpur 7.32pc, Muzaffarabad 6.98pc, Peshawar 6.47pc, Rawalpindi 6.17pc, Lahore 6.16pc, Islamabad 5.94pc, Multan 5.42pc, Faisalabad 5.14pc, Swat 4.8pc, Gujranwala 3.57pc, and Quetta 1.43pc. Azad Kashmir saw the positivity rate of 12.54pc, Sindh 8.61pc, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 5.16pc, Punjab 4.6pc, Balochistan 2.71, and Gilgit Baltista zero.
According to the NCOC, fifty-five more people died of the coronavirus in the country during the last 24 hours. 1,974 people tested positive during this period after swabs of 32,205 people were tested. The figure of active Covid cases in the country stands at 39,488.
Earlier November, the government had allocated initial funding of $150 million to purchase a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine directly from the international market by the second quarter of the next calendar year, to begin immunizing its population of 220 million people, a top government official said. Pfizer said this week its experimental COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90 percent effective based on initial trial results, a major victory in the war against a virus that has killed over a million people and shattered the global economy. Rushing to keep pace with Western drugmakers, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund said on Wednesday its Sputnik V vaccine was 92 percent effective at protecting people from COVID-19, according to interim trial results.
One Chinese city is already offering Sinovac Biotech’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine to essential workers and other high-risk groups as part of a national program, for about $60.
“We are in negotiation with different companies that are expected to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine by March next year to procure the sufficient doses,” Dr Malik Mohammad Safi, director general for health at the Ministry of National Health Services, told Arab News. “We are in the process of advance booking the vaccine from different companies, and the government has also allocated an initial $150m of funding for the purpose,” Safi said.
