Ministers, advisers, SAPMs to get Pak made vaccine

ISLAMABAD: The single-dose Chinese CanSino vaccine developed by National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad would be administered to federal ministers, ministers of state and their families as a measure of confidence developing in homemade medicine who have yet to be vaccinated.

To a query Monday evening Dr Faisal Sultan SAPM said that the ministers, state ministers, SAPMs and advisers are old enough to have got some vaccine already but surely if someone left out some would get it. Pakistan has locally finished a coronavirus vaccine with the help of Chinese experts after raw materials for the vaccine were transported to Islamabad last month.

Dr Faisal Sultan took to Twitter and made the announcement on Monday. He congratulated the NIH on the achievement, adding that the move will step up the country's vaccine supply. He maintained that the finished vaccine — named PakVac — has passed rigorous internal quality control checks and testing. "Congratulations to the NIH Pak team and its leadership on successful finish (from concentrate) of the Cansino vaccine with the help of Cansino Bio Inc. China.

The product has passed rigorous internal QA testing. An important step to help in our vaccine supply line," wrote Dr Sultan. Back in April, NIH officials had said they would start the local production of CanSinoBio's coronavirus vaccine in May. According to the NIH official, the raw material for the vaccine reached Pakistan in early May after which the production of the vaccine was started immediately. It would be pertinent to refer that Dr Faisal Sultan has already announced that the CanSino would be available by the end of May. The Ministry of National Health Services confirmed on Monday that the first batch of China’s single-dose CanSino vaccine would be available for administration to the citizens by the end of May after thorough rigorous quality control checks.