‘Pakistan to acquire at least 100,000 doses of mRNA Covid-19 vaccine’

KARACHI: Pakistan is all set to acquire at least 100,000 doses of mRNA Covid-19 vaccine of Pfizer BioNtech through COVAX by June this year, for which the country has already procured and installed Ultra Cold Chain (UCC) Refrigerators in Islamabad and all the federating units, officials said.

“COVAX has assured us of providing at least 100,000 doses of mRNA vaccine of Pfizer BioNtech by June this year. On their assurance, we have acquired and installed 23 Ultra Cold Chain (UCC) Refrigerators throughout Pakistan,” an official of the National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHS,R&C) told The News on Wednesday.

The double-dose Pfizer vaccine has a shelf life of six months when stored at minus-75C (minus-103F), which represents a logistical challenge in many countries as it requires specialised freezers but officials in Pakistan said they had already taken care of the storage issue by installing 23 Ultra Cold Chain freezers at 16 locations across Pakistan.

In addition to one hundred thousand doses of Pfizer BioNtech vaccine, COVAX has also assured that Pakistan would be provided 2.5 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine from ‘Non-Indian” source after Indian authorities diverted the vaccine supplies to meet domestic needs, the NHS official further claimed.

“COVAX has further assured to provide us 2.5 million doses of AstraZeneca by May-June from a non-Indian source. We are quite satisfied with the assurance and are planning to open the registration of all the adults in the country after Eid-ul-Fitr,” the official said adding that registration of healthcare workers has also been re-started till April 30, 2021 to help those who have not been vaccinated yet.

The official said with the financial assistance from Asian Development Bank (ADB) available with the UNICEF, Pakistan has procured 23 Ultra Cold Chain (UCC) Refrigerators, which have been installed in federal capital and all the federating units to store the mRNA vaccine from Pfizer BioNtech and in future other vaccines that require special storage arrangements.

“These Ultra Cold Chain Refrigerators along with special air conditioners from China had arrived at Karachi Port several weeks back and now they are fully functional. These special refrigerators would be used to store the Pfizer BioNtech and other vaccines in future”, the official added.

According to NHS official, the eight UCC refrigerators have been installed at EPI, NIH Islamabad as well as Tarlai Rural Health Center, one at the district health authority office in Rawalpindi, two at the principal EPI headquarter at Karachi, one at EPI office in Hyderabad and one at provincial EPI headquarter in Quetta.

Similarly, one UCC refrigerator each has been installed at Lahore, Faisalabad, Multan and Gujranwala, the official said, adding that two UCC refrigerators have been installed in Mirpur Azad Kashmir and Muzaffarabad, while three UCC refrigerators have been installed in Peshawar, Abottabad and Swat.

One Ultra Cold Chain Refrigerator has also been installed at Gilgit, the official said and added that specialized and trained teams had been hired to install the sophisticated equipment to ensure that precious vaccines and biological products could remain safe in them.