Moderna jabs set aside for expats

Ag APP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistanis who are going abroad have to produce a foreign work permit to get the Moderna coronavirus vaccine, which is approved in Western and Gulf countries.

Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination Nosheen Hamid on Tuesday said overseas Pakistanis could get vaccinated with the Moderna jab on producing either a work permit or a passport — presumably with a valid visa — to travel abroad.

The Pfizer BioNtech, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines are in high demand in Pakistan because the Chinese-made vaccines — Sinovac and Sinopharm — while approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO), have yet to clear Western and Gulf countries’ regulators, leaving Pakistanis who want to travel abroad clamouring to get vaccinated with Western-developed jabs.

Talking to a private news channel, Hamid said around 2.5 million doses of Moderna vaccine had already arrived from the United States and these would be vaccinated to all expatriates on priority. To a question, she said Moderna vaccine would be available on special centres for overseas Pakistanis.

On the local front, Hamid said more than three million doses of the locally prepared version of the CanSino vaccine — the PakVac jab — will be prepared this month and a single dose will be sufficient protection against Covid-19 disease, she added.

Meanwhile, Pakistan’s active cases stood at 33,390 after 830 more people tested positive, 74 of whom were admitted in hospitals in critical condition in the 24 hours leading to Tuesday. Twenty-five patients died of virus-related complications.