Two million Pakistan’s population inoculated so far: ‘Millions of doses of Chinese, AstraZeneca, mRNA vaccines in pipeline from May to June’

KARACHI: Pakistan has so far inoculated only two million of its population with mix and match of mostly Chinese and a few thousand doses of Russian Sputnik V vaccine, which is less than one percent of the entire population of 220 million, officials said. They however added that the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has allowed five vaccines including three Chinese, one Russian and a European for emergency inoculation of its adult population.

Of the five, four vaccines – three Chinese and one Russian, have been mixed and matched to vaccinate two million people including healthcare workers, elderly and some other high risk groups.

One of the vaccines allowed for emergency use, Covishield AstraZeneca has yet not been received by the authorities in Pakistan, officials of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHS,R&C) told The News.

“The three Chinese vaccines include double-dose Sinopharm, single dose Convidecia of CanSino Biologics Inc and CoronaVac by Sinovac Life Sciences, Beijing, China,” the NHS, R&C official told The News.

Similarly, the DRAP’s registration board has also approved double-dose Russian Sputnik V vaccine, the official said while adding that European-Swedish company AstraZeneca’s Covishield has also been given emergency authorization, although the latter has not yet been acquired or received through COVAX.

According to Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on health Dr. Faisal Sultan, Pakistan has so far acquired 5,260,000 doses of different Chinese vaccines through donations from China and through bilateral purchase till April 2021, of which 0.5 million doses were received in January, 0.7 million in February, 1,060,000 doses in March and 3,000,000 doses arrived in Pakistan in the current month of April.

Of these 5,260,000 vaccine doses, 4.7 million doses of double-dose Chinese vaccine Sinopharm, 60,000 doses of single-dose Chinese vaccine Convidecia while half a million doses of CoronaAac vaccine of Sinovac Life Sciences have also been received by Pakistan in these last four months. In addition to these vaccine doses, private sector companies procured 50,000 doses of Russian V vaccine by AGP Pharma Limited which have already been consumed while another private firm AJM Pharma has managed to procure 10,000 doses of single dose Chinese vaccine Convideica of CanSino Bio.

“As many as 670,000 doses, mostly Chinese and European AstraZeneca vaccines are expected to arrive in Pakistan in May while in 6,30,000 doses of Chinese, European AstraZeneca and little over 100,000 doses of Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine are also expected in June,” Dr. Faisal Sultan said. According to SAPM on health, of nearly 18.7 million doses (received and expected) until June, 78% have been purchased by the government.On the other hand, NHS,R&C officials told The News that COVAX had assured Pakistan of providing 2.47 million doses of AstraZeneca’s double dose vaccine Covishield in two consignments from South Korea or any other country. But so far the bulk of our vaccine supplies would come from China,” he added.The COVAX has also assured Pakistan of supplying ‘a little more than’ 100,000 doses of Pfizer’s messenger RNA vaccine, being used by the United States and other countries, the official said, though this vaccine has not yet been approved for emergency use in Pakistan. The health authorities have already procured 23 Ultra Cold Chain Refrigerators installed in 16 countries to store mRNA vaccine and added that mRNA vaccines require minus 70 to 80 degrees Celsius for storage.