Pakistan decides to import Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine: Fawad Chaudhry

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said on Thursday that the cabinet committee has decided to buy the COVID-19 vaccine from Chinese company Sinopharm.

“Initially, 1.2 million doses will be purchased from Sinopharm,” the federal science minister said on Twitter.

The vaccine will be given free of charge to frontline workers in the first quarter of 2021. He added that the private sector could also import vaccines that had been approved for use across the world.

On Wednesday, Federal Planning Minister and NCOC Chief Asad Umar tweeted: “Authorized procurement of more than 1 million vaccines which will cover all frontline health workers, as soon as DRAP expert committee approves vaccine.”

Held meeting of cabinet committee for procurement of vaccines. Authorized procurement of more than 1 million vaccines which will cover all frontline health workers, as soon as DRAP expert committee approves vaccine. Target is to deploy these vaccines within 1st quarter of 2021.

— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) December 30, 2020

China approved on Thursday its locally-manufactured Sinopharm vaccine after results of its clinical trials were released. The firm had announced that the vaccine had an efficacy rate of 79% based on early analysis of Phase 3 trials.

The vaccine has already been rolled out in the UAE and Bahrain. The UAE began emergency use on September 14 and approved the vaccine for full use on December 6. Bahrain began inoculating health workers on December 13.