Supply of AstraZeneca through COVAX delayed

KARACHI: Pakistan is expecting 9.5 million doses of Chinese vaccine Sinopharm by mid-March for Pakistani healthcare workers, an official said and added that after DRAP allowed it for vaccinating people of 60 years and above, the vaccine is the number one choice for vaccinating the elderly in Pakistan.

“Earlier, it was planned to vaccinate the elderly population in Pakistan with British-Swedish vaccine AstraZeneca, which was supposed to be delivered to Pakistan by March 02, 2021 through COVAX but due to unexplained reasons, the first shipment of around 2.5 million doses has been delayed,” the official added.

He, however, claimed that Pakistan expects to get the first shipment of AstraZeneca vaccine by mid-March. By that time 9.5 million doses of the Chinese vaccine would also be available, providing enough doses to vaccinate around 8.5 million elderly population and the 1.2 million healthcare workers.

The health official said at the moment, a few hundred thousand doses of Sinopharm vaccine were available with the federal government. So far, only 250,000 frontline healthcare workers have received the vaccination and by the time first dose of the vaccine is administered to most of the elderly, Pakistan would acquire several million doses of both Chinese Sinopharm and British-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccine.

Last week the registration board of Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan had also allowed vaccination of people above 60 years by Russian vaccine Sputnik V if it was available privately. The decision was taken on the recommendations of an expert committee on vaccines.