Over 13,000 people volunteer for corona vaccine trials in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: In Pakistan, to date 13,000 people have volunteered for the coronavirus vaccine trials across the country, a health official said.

The first human trials of the vaccine, developed by the Chinese company CanSino Biologics Inc, started on September 22 in Pakistan. Since then, the country has administered the experimental jab to 13,000 people, Dr Ejaz Khan, chairman of infection control at Shifa Hospital in Islamabad, who is also overlooking the trials, told Geo.tv.

The vaccine trials are being conducted at five centres in Pakistan — two in Karachi, two in Lahore and one in Islamabad.Dr Khan added that an earlier target of giving the jab to over 10,000 people at least in Pakistan, has now been revised. The new target for the country is 18,000.

In China, five coronavirus vaccines are in the final stages of development.According to Reuters, China plans to vaccinate 50 million people before the start of Lunar New Year in February, for which it has granted emergency-use status to two candidate vaccines from Sinopharm and one from Sinovac Biotech.The fourth candidate, the vaccine being developed by CanSino Biologics Inc, has been approved for military use.