Islamabad, Pakistan:
Pakistan will buy 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from China’s Sinopharm , a minister stated on Thursday, the 1st official confirmation of a vaccine buy by the South Asian nation as it battles a second wave of infections.
China authorized a COVID-19 vaccine created by an affiliate of state-backed pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm on Thursday, its 1st authorized shot for common public use.
“The Cabinet Committee has decided to initially purchase 1.2 million doses of the vaccine from the Chinese company Sinopharm, which will be provided free of cost to frontline workers in the first quarter of 2021,” Pakistani Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain stated on Twitter.
Pakistan had earlier this month authorized $150 million in funding to acquire COVID-19 vaccines, initially to cover the most vulnerable 5 per cent of the population.
The nation did not announce which vaccine it would procure, but stated a panel of professionals was compiling a list of suggestions and that it could tap more than one particular supply.
“If the private sector wants to import any other internationally-approved vaccine, it can do so,” Hussain stated on Thursday.
The nation of 220 million is in the midst of one more spate of infections, with 58 deaths on Wednesday taking its death count previous 10,000.
It also reported 2,475 new infections, taking the total to 479,715.
Pakistan is also operating phase III clinical trials for CanSino Biologics’ COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Ad5-nCoV, led by the government-run National Institute of Health.
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