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How good has been the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations in Pakistan?

How good has been the rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations in Pakistan?

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MenInG

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">PTI government will provide the coronavirus vaccine free of cost to the people. <br>Government will start the vaccination from the second quarter of 2021. In Shaa Allah <a href="https://twitter.com/ImranKhanPTI?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ImranKhanPTI</a><a href="https://twitter.com/nhsrcofficial?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@nhsrcofficial</a> <a href="https://t.co/KVALSZVYdH">pic.twitter.com/KVALSZVYdH</a></p>— Dr. Nausheen (@DrNausheenPTI) <a href="https://twitter.com/DrNausheenPTI/status/1334073210120376322?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 2, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Covid-19 vaccine will be provided to citizens free of cost, says parliamentary health secy

The Covid-19 vaccine, once procured, will be administered to citizens free of cost, Parliamentary Secretary for National Health Services Regulations and Coordination (NHSRC) Dr Nausheen Hamid said.

According to APP, Dr Hamid, in an interview with a private news chanel, said that a vaccine will be made available "once its efficacy is proved".

A day earlier, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan had suggested that the vaccine will be given free of cost.

"The government will fund this [and] take on this responsibility so nobody will be burdened," he had said.
 
yahoodi saazish and IK is gonna inject pakistanis with micro chips to stop them voting for Nawaz
 
the Great Khan said:
yahoodi saazish and IK is gonna inject pakistanis with micro chips to stop them voting for Nawaz
Click to expand...

Nope. Will be manufactured and shipped in bulk from China. Those microchips will feed subliminal messages about the noble Han race and their fight for global peace through the spread of soy sauce and communism.
 
Good and essentially needed move.

Say what you like about Imran, he is at the very least a far more compassionate human being then his predecessors.
 
Vaccine Vaccine Vaccine.

Every world leader can't stop talking about it. Let one be invented in the first place.
 
Varun said:
I've heard about a vaccine since April. Lots of hype, let's wait for the actual substance before deciding whether it's free or whatever.
Click to expand...

That is because they have been invented since April. As for the substance, there is a thread here on the recent trail results. In short we have three vaccines already out of phase three trials. They are ready to go. UK begins vaccination in a week or so.

Three more candidates might join them by the end of December, Jan 2021 at the latest.
 
Good luck to the government. They're dealing with one of the two countries that have yet to eradicate polio.
 
Varun said:
I've heard about a vaccine since April. Lots of hype, let's wait for the actual substance before deciding whether it's free or whatever.
Click to expand...

Good to see an indian complaining about the pakistani govt promising something to its people.
 
angrypathan said:
Good luck to the government. They're dealing with one of the two countries that have yet to eradicate polio.
Click to expand...

Don't throw rocks in glass houses. The anti-vaxxer movement in western countries is bigger than in Pakistan as a percent of population.
 
This will likely be a Chinese Vaccine rather than an American or Canadian vaccine. Apparently I have heard the Russian Vaccine has shown the best results so far.

I would personally hold off from taking any vaccine till the end of 2021 after seeing the results of all the vaccines
 
ISLAMABAD: As sample sizes of studies involving local populations matter a lot, the government has decided to almost double the sample size of clinical trial of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The target of vaccinating 10,000 volunteers has been enhanced to 18,000. However, it has been decided that the trial would be completed in the current month so that the process of registration of the vaccine could be started.

As many as 3,499 coronavirus cases and 39 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.

Vice Chancellor of the University of Health Sciences Prof Dr Javed Akram said the sample size had been enhanced to 18,000 to ensure a comprehensive study. He said so far 9,000 volunteers had been vaccinated.

“As vaccines can have different impacts/results on different races of people so it would be much better to see the efficacy of the vaccine on people of Pakistan. However, we have decided to expedite the pace of the trial and are hopeful that it will be completed by the end of current year,” he said.

As the United Kingdom has registered a vaccine for Covid-19, he said that once the trial would be completed, the process for registration of the vaccine would begin.

“Vaccines are registered after completion of studies. Vaccine will be registered if it would be proved that it is in the best interest of Pakistani nation,” he said.

In August this year, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan had given approval to hold clinical trial of the Covid-19 vaccine in the country and after that preparations were started. In September this year, Pakistan started clinical trial of the Covid-19 vaccine. Trial is being held in different cities and a vaccine prepared with the cooperation of China is being used to observe that if anti-bodies are developed in volunteers, who are over 18 years and less than 60 years of age.

An official of the Ministry of National Health Services said that Pakistan was mainly focusing on the Chinese vaccine.

“Although $150 million has been allocated, we are reluctant to make advance payment to any pharmaceutical company because we cannot say with certainty which company will bring the vaccine in the market first. We have limited resources and we don’t want to take a gamble. In case of any blunder we will be declared responsible and will face the brunt,” he said.

Meanwhile, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Thursday said that the number of active patients had reached 51,654 and 332 ventilators, out of 1,740 allocated for Covid-19, were in use.

Moreover, the NCOC was informed that the national positivity ratio was 8.16 per cent. Highest 20.12pc positivity ratio was observed in Karachi followed by Hyderabad at 18.43pc and Abbottabad 14.53pc.

Provincial positivity ratio was highest in Sindh i.e. 14.1pc, Balochistan 12.5pc, Azad Jammu and Kashmir 11.9pc, Islamabad 6.6pc, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 5.6pc, Gilgit-Baltistan 4.7pc and Punjab 4.2pc.

The NCOC was also informed that 2,469 Covid-19 patients were in critical condition across Pakistan and the number of critical patients was rising fast.

Published in Dawn, December 4th, 2020
 
My Pakistani neighbour said all I need to drink is 'Kavah' and have lemon/ginger/honey in hot water with paracetomol and vitamin c tablets :afridi
 
Govt approaches Gavi to make coronavirus vaccine available in Pakistan

The Ministry of National Health Services will submit an application to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to make the coronavirus vaccine available in Pakistan.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Health said the government will apply to COVAX, the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator, that GAVI is co-leading.

The COVAX facility is a global collaboration to speed up the development, production and access to COVID-19 tests, treatments and vaccines.

GAVI started accepting applications for the availability of vaccines on November 17.

The health ministry said the recommendations of the Special Working Group on improving immunity of citizens have also been approved. They were approved in a meeting of the coordination committee chaired by PM’s aide on health Dr Faisal Sultan.

Dr Sultan said the government is making efforts to ensure safe and effective vaccines as soon as possible and protection of healthcare workers fighting on the frontline in the fight against coronavirus.

Pakistan has so far recorded 410,072 COVID-19 cases and 8,260 deaths. On Friday 3,262 new cases were reported and 55 new deaths.

The number of people who have recovered from the virus has reached 350,305.

https://www.samaa.tv/news/2020/12/g...ke-coronavirus-vaccine-available-in-pakistan/
 
Health authorities are negotiating with China and Russia, among others, to procure coronavirus vaccines, prime minister's aide Dr Faisal Sultan said on Monday.

“We are in talks with China, Russia and some other countries for procurement of the [Covid-19] vaccine after narrowing down our priority list,” Dr Sultan, the special assistant to the prime minister on health (SAPM), told Anadolu Agency.

The vaccine, he said, would be available in Pakistan sometime between January and March next year, and administered to health workers and senior citizens in the first phase.

“There is nothing final yet; however, I can tell you that we have to rely on more than one source,” the SAPM said. “We will procure the vaccine only after its efficacy and safety is proven."

While Russia has started the distribution of its Sputnik V Covid-19 shot nationwide, China is testing its vaccines in many countries, and supply deals are being signed.

Other vaccines seeking emergency use authorisation are produced by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford-AstraZeneca.

Islamabad has already earmarked an initial sum of $150 million to purchases the doses. In a press conference earlier this month, Dr Sultan had said that the authorities will request the government to approve more funds if required.

Last week, Nausheen Hamid, the parliamentary secretary for health, said all citizens would be administered Covid-19 vaccines free of charge, and the drive will begin in the second quarter of 2021.

According to Dr Sultan, the vaccine will be administered to citizens in stages: frontline healthcare workers will be the first priority; in the second stage, the elderly and at risk-population, in addition to other healthcare workers, will get the vaccine; and the common public will receive the vaccine in the third stage.

Pakistan has witnessed a spike in Covid-19 cases and deaths in recent weeks. The country recorded 3,795 new infections today, the highest single-day tally since July 3.

The total caseload in the country of 220 million people has reached 420,294, including 8,398 related deaths. Pakistan has tested about 5.8 million people for the virus to date.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1594527/g...-russia-to-get-vaccines-says-dr-faisal-sultan
 
Pakistan's allocation for vaccine purchase raised to $250m

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has increased its funds allocated for purchasing Covid-19 vaccine to $250 million and signed non-disclosure agreements with various multinational companies.

Under the agreement, the recipient country will not make details of the vaccine public.

Earlier, the government had set aside $150m for the vaccine.

Talking to Dawn, Parliamentary Secretary on National Health Services (NHS) Dr Nausheen Hamid said allocation for vaccine purchase had been enhanced to $250 million.

“We will sign a purchase agreement with more than one company to ensure that we get a vaccine (in case any of the available vaccine fails). Russia had also offered us its vaccine recently. However, we are looking into its safety and efficacy as public health is our top priority,” she said.

When asked when the vaccine will be available, Dr Nausheen Hamid said it was hoped that the delivery of the vaccine would start by the end of the first quarter of next year.

“However, we are not going to give the vaccine to everyone. According to our priority list, in the first phase, healthcare workers attending to Covid-19 patients and people over 65 years will be vaccinated. In the second phase the remaining healthcare workers and people over 60 years of age will get preference. Moreover GAVI has also pledged to provide vaccine for 20pc population which comes to 450 million people,” she said.

By the end of 2021, it would be available to the masses, Dr Nausheen Hamid added.

Replying to another question, the parliamentary secretary said Pfizer had offered special containers to maintain the cold chain, adding that the vaccine could be kept in normal freezers for five days.

A senior official of the NHS ministry, requesting not to be quoted, said there were six potential companies across the globe and the ministry was not only engaged with them but had signed non-disclosure agreements with some of them due to which they were sharing data and progress of vaccine trials.

“The Chinese vaccine is also under trial in Pakistan so we will get the vaccine on a priority basis. As per assurances given by the companies we may get between 100,000 and 500,000 doses by the end of February or in March. The vaccine will be administered to the most vulnerable people such as healthcare professionals working with Covid-19 patients,” he said.

When asked why the vaccine cannot be arranged in the current month or at the start of next year, the official said Pakistan was a developing country and funds could go to waste as there was a risk factor involved.

When asked why the vaccine cannot be arranged in the current month or at the start of next year, the official said Pakistan was a developing country and funds could go to waste as there was a risk factor involved.

“Canada’s population is only 40 million but it has made advance payments to different companies for 250 million doses. Over six times the doses have been booked as some companies can declare failure of research anytime,” he said.

“Besides, we are part of the Covax by Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI) in which there are 189 countries and we will get free vaccine for 20pc of the population. I hope that we will acquire the vaccine for 3pc of our population in the second quarter of 2021 and the remaining by the end of 2021. However, there will be questions about the cold chain management of the vaccine as it would not be easy to provide the vaccine across the country,” the official added.

He said when the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) was taken onboard for rules on vaccine registration, it said any vaccine registered in developed countries could be immediately allowed for emergency use.

“However that reply has put a question mark on the Chinese vaccine as I fear that it (Chinese vaccine) might not be registered in developed countries and a detailed study will be required for the registration of the vaccine with Drap,” he added.

When contacted, Head of Polio Programme and Expanded Programme of Immunisation Dr Rana Safdar agreed that there was an issue of cold chain management.

“We have been reviewing our cold chain management system to ensure supply of the vaccine across the country. Though cold storages for maintaining -70 degree Celsius can be arranged easily, they will only be used for Covid-19 vaccine as other vaccines are stored at 2 to 8 degrees Celsius,” he said.

Dr Safdar said it could be suggested to multinational companies to provide Covid-19 vaccines in different cities as the vaccine could be stored in normal freezers for up to five days.

On the other hand, some health experts have suggested adopting wait-and-see policy as there could be chronic effects of the vaccine such as early diabetes and arthritis.

Microbiologist Prof Dr Javaid Usman told Dawn that though the United Kingdom, United States and some other countries have allowed emergency use of the vaccine, it was too early even for them.

“It may take 10 months to one year to see if the vaccines have any chronic effects. Though the US has allowed emergency use, I am sure it will take some time for it to cover bulk of the population. We are in no way late as there can be side effects of the vaccine. In the past people stopped getting their children administered measles vaccine after a research was published in a renowned journal which said autism was developing among children due to the vaccine,” Prof Usman added.

“Quality of vaccine, efficacy and availability should be considered before administering it. Moreover there is a possibility that the vaccine might stop working as the virus has been mutating. This is why every year new influenza vaccine is launched because the virus mutates itself,” he added.

NCOC data

According to data released by the National Command and Operation Centre, 2,729 new cases and 71 deaths were reported in a single day.

The data showed that 67 per cent ventilators were occupied in Multan, 51pc in Islamabad, 36pc in Lahore and 31pc were occupied in Peshawar. Overall 355 vents were in use throughout the country.

The national positivity ratio stood at 6.59pc with the highest observed in Karachi at 20.88pc, followed by Peshawar at 15.05pc and Muzaffarabad, 11.2pc.

https://www.dawn.com/news/1595458/pakistans-allocation-for-vaccine-purchase-raised-to-250m
 
Varun said:
Vaccine Vaccine Vaccine.

Every world leader can't stop talking about it. Let one be invented in the first place.
Click to expand...

Err, it’s being rolled out in the UK right now.

Well done Imran!
 
The chief of the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) — the body leading Pakistan's fight against coronavirus — on Wednesday said that a cabinet committee has authorised the procurement of more than one million vaccines.

Asad Umar, in his statement on Twitter, said that the number "will cover all frontline health workers".

He said what remains now is for DRAP (Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan) to approve a vaccine.

Umar said that the government aims to deploy the vaccines within the first quarter of 2021.
 
Pakistan says will purchase 1.1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine made by China's state-owned pharma SinoPharm

The vaccine has been approved for general use by China and has been declared to be 79% efficient
 
KoyoAli said:
Pakistan says will purchase 1.1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine made by China's state-owned pharma SinoPharm

The vaccine has been approved for general use by China and has been declared to be 79% efficient
Click to expand...

Soon, if not already out, you will see jokes about these chinese vaccines in social media, when you alternatively have vaccines with upto 95% efficiency.
 
IAJ said:
Soon, if not already out, you will see jokes about these chinese vaccines in social media, when you alternatively have vaccines with upto 95% efficiency.
Click to expand...

Who cares about jokes on SM. Its not like we were gonna get the 95% alternatives either way.
 
Pakistan is expected to get the first COVID-19 vaccine shipment by the end of this month, Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of National Health Services Dr Nausheen Hamid said.

According to Radio Pakistan, Dr Hamid said that the government was "urgently" drafting a database of all public and private medical workers to get them inoculated in the first phase.

However, the publication did not specify which vaccine and from which country Pakistan would procure it.

A week earlier, science minister Fawad Chaudhry said Pakistan would purchase 1.2 million doses of coronavirus vaccine from China's Sinopharm.

"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," the science minister said on Twitter.

Last month, China had approved the COVID-19 vaccine developed by an affiliate of state-backed pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm, its first approved shot for general public use.

Sindh health minister foresees delay
Meanwhile, on January 5, Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Fazal Pechuho said that the Centre had hinted that the procurement of the COVID-19 vaccine could be delayed.

"The PTI-led federal government has reported that it will take time for the coronavirus vaccine to arrive," Dr Pechuho said, adding that it was earlier announced that the drug would be available after January 15.

Read more: China assures Pakistan to provide over 1 million COVID-19 vaccine doses

The Sindh minister explained that the provincial government would formulate a comprehensive policy on the coronavirus vaccines, adding that arrangements in that regard had been completed as well.
 
LAHORE: The phase III clinical trials for a Chinese coronavirus vaccine candidate at the Shifa International Hospital in Islamabad will end this week.

The lead physician of the clinical trial, Dr Ejaz A Khan told Geo.tv that the Ad5-nCoV vaccine is developed by CanSino Biologics and a research unit backed by the Chinese military.

“The trials began in September last year with a target of 17,500 volunteers.”

The physician, who is also the chairman of infection control at the hospital, said the sample will be reviewed by Dalhousie University in Canada. “The university will determine the efficacy of the vaccine.”

The trial will then enter phase IV which is when a vaccine is green-lighted for manufacturing, marketing, and distribution, he added.

A health official told Geo.tv that the data of Chinese vaccines, Sinopharm and Ad5-nCoV, has been submitted to the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) for grant of emergency use.

“First limited supply [of vaccine] likely to start in February,” the official added.

Report: Pakistan hasn't placed any orders for coronavirus vaccine yet

The first-ever large-scale trial in Pakistan was conducted at five centres; two in Karachi and Lahore each and, one in Islamabad.

In the federal capital, the Shifa International Hospital repurposed a building previously used for COVID-19 testing for the trial where volunteers, recruited through NGOs, hospitals and corporations, arrived by appointment to get the jab.

To volunteer, the individual must be 18 and above, not have tested positive for COVID-19, not have immune deficiencies, and not be pregnant for the trial duration.

The hospital also provided a one-time Rs2,000 compensation for travel and food expenses.

The clinical trial is being supervised by the National Institute of Health.
 
Great initiative, but I'm sure some blind IK haters will say something about this too.
 
The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap) on Saturday authorised the Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine shot for emergency use in Pakistan, making it the first vaccine get local approval.

“Drap granted emergency use authorisation to AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine,” Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Healh Dr Faisal Sultan told Reuters.

The country has also pre-booked more than a million doses of Sinopharm's vaccine from China, Sultan said, adding that the Sinopharm vaccine is awaiting approval from Drap, which has received and reviewed its data.

“We are in the process to obtain Western origin and other vaccines both via bilateral purchase agreements as well as via the Covax facility,” he said.

Pakistan is speaking to a number of vaccine makers, and Sultan said the country could get “in the range of tens of millions” of vaccine doses under an agreement with China's CanSinoBio.

The vaccine company's Ad5-nCoV Covid-19 candidate is nearing completion of Phase III clinical trials in Pakistan.

Efficacy is a key factor, said Sultan. “We have and are watching the evolving stories around efficacy of a number of vaccines.” Sultan said preliminary results of the Cansino vaccine may come in by mid-February. He added that Pakistan was considering to engage with Russia's Sputnik V vaccine.

Pakistan reported 2,432 new coronavirus infections and 45 deaths on Friday, taking the total number of cases to more than 516,000 and deaths close to 11,000.

“Our aim is that the bulk of the population will be covered free,” the PM's aide said, adding that private sectors could also be allowed once supply was available to an authorised company.

Sultan added that Pakistan had adequate cold chain facilities for most kinds of vaccines.

Govt wants vaccine of highest efficacy

A day earlier, Sultan had told Dawn that the government is confident of acquiring the vaccine by the first quarter of the current year, but is adopting a ‘look-before-you-leap’ strategy to ensure procurement of a medicine of the highest efficacy.

He had said the government was under close contact with a few international firms manufacturing the Covid-19 vaccine. “We will get the vaccine from the firm which prepares it the earliest,” he had added.

Sultan had also negated the impression that the government had delayed the procurement of the drug and said it was a matter of days before orders to purchase the vaccine would be placed.

The special assistant had said although the country had a population of 200 million, 100 million were under the age of 18, and therefore would not be vaccinated. “As 100pc population cannot be vaccinated in any country, we need to target 70pc of the vaccineable population, which is 70 million,” he had said.

Dr Sultan had said in the first phase, two categories of people would be administered the vaccine — frontline healthcare workers and people over 65 years of age.

“There are seven million people in the age bracket of 60 and 65 years who will be vaccinated in the second phase along with the remaining healthcare professional,” he had said.

Dawn.
 
Notice that the anti IK brigade hibernating as usual.
 
PPP chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday criticised the delay in the procurement of a vaccine by the government, saying that all the gains made during the fight against coronavirus in the earlier months of the outbreak will be lost at this rate.

"The only solution to come out of this difficult situation is the vaccine," he stressed.

"Where due to your sacrifices and lockdown Pakistan was ahead, it will now fall behind," the PPP chairman said.

He said Pakistan has made no arrangements for import of the vaccine, whereas India, Bangladesh and Western countries are moving very quickly to secure the vaccine.

"Sindh government was expecting to roll out the vaccine in January. We were told to be prepared by January so the vaccination can begin," Bilawal said.

He said the Sindh government had prepared and readied "all mechanisms", especially to ensure vaccination for frontline workers who are "most vulnerable and the most important" but the vaccine "never came".

"It seems we will have to wait for a long time."

Pakistan hasn't placed any orders for coronavirus vaccine yet: report

Bilawal said this "unfair" approach by the government will lead to the private sector being given a preference. "The private sector will have full freedom. The private sector will be the first to arrange a vaccine and whoever has money will get vaccinated," he said.

He said instead what should have occurred was that the government should have first procured it for the frontline workers, "after which obviously the private sector can begin to as well".

"But this will not happen now."

Bilawal said that whether its Pakistan's economy or its health sector, "our government has failed and this is why the people are suffering".

"This is why we demand that they step down," said the PPP chairman.

He said that the controversies and cases the PTI is embroiled "are there for everyone to see".

"Transparency International says Pakistan's most corrupt government is the PTI government," he said.

The PPP chairman said that during their time, the Billion Tree Tsunami scandal, the BRT project scandal and the foreign funding case all surfaced.

Foreign funding case
"There are very serious allegations that the PTI is a foreign-funded party. Their own member has raised allegations. But unfortunately, whether it is the court or the election commission, the truth has not been put forth before the people.

"This is why the Pakistan Democratic Movement will protest on January 19 outside the Election Commission of Pakistan and will demand that the case be taken to its conclusion and all the facts of the case be made public," Bilawal said.

He said the people must be told which people from which countries "gave so much money to PTI".

"If a citizen from India or from Israel funds a Pakistan party there must be a reason behind it."

Bilawal said it must be probed "why this money was given to PTI and since PTI came into power did they facilitate these people in any way or not".

He said he believes "if such a senior member has provided proof of such a serious allegation", the truth of these allegations should have been put before the public by now.

The PPP chairman said he hopes after the protest, "we won't be disappointed like in the past".

He said the party, as well as he, in a personal capacity will fully participate in highlighting the issue through press conferences and other means.

Responding to a reporter's query regarding PPP "using back-door channels to hold talks with the government", he denied and condemned such reports, saying: "You yourself accept that these are negative reports. Had there been any truth you would have known about it. There is no such thing."
 
When are they rolling out the vaccine in the country?

On the other hand india has started rolling local one which is going to be the biggest vaccination ever.
 
Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said on Saturday that the federal government would not hold a monopoly on the import of coronavirus vaccines, adding that provinces and the private sector were free to import vaccines subject to approval of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (Drap).

Umar — who also serves as chief of the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) — made the statement in Geo News show 'Naya Pakistan'. "From day 1, the NCOC has adopted the policy that the federal government shall not have the monopoly to import anti-coronavirus vaccines," he said. "Provinces and private entities including hospitals have been allowed to import the vaccines that are approved by Drap."

Umar said that once the AstraZeneca vaccine was approved by the regulatory authority, it may be imported by the Sindh government if the latter could procure supplies from abroad. He further said that he encouraged not only the Sindh government "but all provincial governments to import the vaccine from abroad".

He was responding to Sindh Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho's comments from earlier in the day, where she had urged the federal government to allow the provincial government to procure a vaccine for the novel coronavirus as she criticised the Centre over its 'slow approach' in ordering vaccines. She had further said that the Centre should also play its part in providing vaccines to Sindh but the provincial government must be allowed to procure vaccines for its residents.


Umar said he wanted to clear any misunderstandings, stating that provinces were free as a matter of policy since day one to import vaccines after approval.

The NCOC chief also addressed and gave updates on other aspects of Pakistan's vaccination rollout. He said China's Sinopharm vaccine was also approved by a technical committee and only the matter of its name for local distribution remained, which would be decided by Tuesday. He added that the Chinese government was itself working directly with Pakistan to facilitate doses of Sinopharm and "they will let us know about the first batch of vaccines by Tuesday."

Speaking about China's CanSino vaccine for which phase three clinical trials are currently underway in Pakistan, he said that results of its trial would arrive by the second half of February and "if those are positive then it too will be available in March".

He added that with Pakistan being a signatory to the Covax alliance, vaccines from multiple sources would be procured and made available in the first quarter of the year.

Covax is an alliance that had been set up by Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and World Health Organisation in April last year. It has pledged provision of free vaccine for 20pc of the population of around 190 countries, including Pakistan.

AstraZeneca approved in Pakistan
Drap earlier on Saturday authorised the AstraZeneca Covid-19 shot for emergency use in Pakistan, making it the first vaccine to get local approval.

“Drap granted emergency use authorisation to AstraZeneca’s Covid vaccine,” Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Healh Dr Faisal Sultan told Reuters.

Pakistan has also pre-booked more than a million doses of Sinopharm's vaccine from China, Sultan said, adding that the Sinopharm vaccine is awaiting approval from Drap, which has received and reviewed its data. Its efficacy rate was announced at 79.3 per cent by Chinese health authorities.

“We are in the process to obtain Western origin and other vaccines both via bilateral purchase agreements as well as via the Covax facility,” Sultan had said.
 
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday authorised emergency use of Chinese firm Sinopharm's anti-coronavirus vaccine as the country grapples with a second wave of infections.

The decision was taken by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) after meetings held between January 14 and 18 during which the authority reviewed vaccine results submitted by the National Institute of Health (NIH), sources told Geo News.

This approval allows federal and provincial governments as well as the private sector to import the vaccine from China. In December 2020, Federal Minister for Science and Technology Chaudhry Fawad Hussain had said Pakistan will purchase 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from China’s Sinopharm.

It may be noted here that the federal government set aside $150 million to procure vaccine late last year.

The anti-coronavirus vaccine is developed by a Sinopharm subsidiary called China National Biotec Group (CNBG). On December 30 last year, Sinopharm announced that phase-III trials showed the COVID-19 vaccine was 79% effective.

But the United Arab Emirates, which approved the the vaccine for emergency use in December, said interim results of Phase-III trials showed 86% it was effective.

The vaccine has also been approved for use in China, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, and Serbia.

This is the second vaccine approved for emergency use in Pakistan. Last Friday, DRAP green-lighted use of AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine. Pakistan is currently running phase-III clinical trials for CanSino Biologics’ vaccine candidate, Ad5-nCoV, led by the government-run National Institute of Health.

The country's COVID-19 case tally surged to 521,211 on Monday with over 1,900 new infections reported in 24 hours. Pakistan has witnessed 48.8 deaths on average every day due to coronavirus since the start of January 2021 with hospital intensive care units nearing capacity across the country.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/330593-pakistan-approves-sinopharm-coronavirus-vaccine-for-emergency-use
 
I would be surprised if any country is charging its citizens for vaccinations. I think even the US is vaccinating at no cost.
 
India started delivering coronavirus vaccines to its neighbours on Wednesday, the foreign ministry said, flagging off a drive to garner goodwill in an often fractious region with the first shipment sent to the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.

Bangladesh and Nepal said they expected deliveries on Thursday. The only neighbour absent from India’s list apart from China, is Pakistan, which had not requested assistance, according to an Indian government official.

Many low and middle-income countries are relying on India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, for supplies to start Covid-19 immunisation programmes and bring an end to their outbreaks.

“The Pharmacy of the World will deliver to overcome the Covid challenge,” Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar said on Twitter, adding the first vaccine lots had reached Bhutan and the Maldives.

His ministry said on Tuesday “supplies under grant assistance” would be shipped to Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and the Seychelles also. Shipments to Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Mauritius were awaiting regulatory clearances.

India authorised two vaccines this month for emergency use at home, one licensed from Oxford University and AstraZeneca and another developed at home by Bharat Biotech in partnership with the state-run Indian Council of Medical Research. Both are manufactured locally.

At least two other vaccines are expected to be authorised by India in the next few months.

India initially will only ship the AstraZeneca vaccine, made by the Serum Institute of India, the world’s biggest vaccine maker, which brands the shot as Covishield.

Bangladesh said it expected to receive a gift of two million doses of Covishield from India on Thursday. The country of more than 160m has yet to start its vaccination programme and has ordered a further 30m doses of the shot.

Nepal said it has been pledged one million doses free of charge by India.

Pakistan has approved for emergency use the Chinese Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine and another developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, but has not got any supplies yet.

Vaccine hesitancy

A healthcare worker receives a dose of Covishield, a Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, at a government-run hospital at Baruipur on the outskirts of Kolkata, India on January 18. — Reuters
India, which has reported the highest number of coronavirus infections after the United States, has so far vaccinated more than 631,417 frontline workers after starting the campaign on Saturday.

The world’s second-most populous country reported on Wednesday 13,823 new cases, taking the total to 10.9m. The number of deaths from the disease rose by 162 to 152,718, data from the health ministry showed.

The government has urged frontline workers not to refuse the vaccines, after almost all states failed to meet their targets in the first few days of the immunisation drive.

Many people have declined to take the shots, especially the Bharat Biotech vaccine whose efficacy data from late-stage trials are not known, fearing side-effects.

In a survey conducted by New Delhi-based online platform LocalCircles, 62 per cent of 17,000 respondents were hesitant to get vaccinated immediately, mainly due to worries over possible adverse reactions. The government has reported hospitalisation from side effects in only 0.002pc of vaccine recipients.
 
Unfortunately, I do not see Pakistan being able to vaccinate its population. There is a severe lack of trained personnel and there is no infrastructure and competency to undertake such a massive vaccination drive. We have still not been able to get rid of polio!
 
KARACHI: The federal and provincial governments have been offered to buy the Oxford-AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine for $6-7 by a Pakistani importer if they procure the important drug in bulk, reported The News on Thursday.

However, Sindh Medical Stores (SMS) has not given a timeframe as to when it would be able to deliver the vaccine to the country.

SMS was allowed to import the Oxford-AstraZeneca’s vaccine in Pakistan by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) on Friday. The approval was given on the recommendations of an experts panel that asked DRAP to give emergency use authorisation to the British-Swedish multinational company’s AZD-1222 vaccine in the country.

“After getting the emergency use authorisation and permission from the DRAP to import the Oxford-AstraZeneca’s AZD1222 vaccine in Pakistan, we have offered to provide it for USD 6-7 per dose to the federal and provincial governments. We, however, don’t know when we would be able to get hold of the first consignment of the vaccine as it has been already purchased by the several countries of the world,” SMS official Usman Ghani told The News.

Read more: Pakistan to get first coronavirus vaccine doses 'within weeks', says Dr Faisal Sultan

The official shared that SMS will be able to provide the British company’s vaccine $6-7 per dose, making it Rs1,000 to 1,200 per dose if the government agrees to buy 30 to 50 million doses.

“For the private sector and institutions, we have offered to provide it for Rs2,000 to Rs2,500 per dose if they order 10,000 or more doses. But it should be very clear that we would only be providing the vaccine to reputed institutions like Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Shaukat Khanum hospital and others,” Usman Ghani added.

To a question about the delivery of the vaccine, Ghani said that he could not share the exact date as AstraZeneca was supplying it to other countries which had already booked and paid for the vaccine in advance.

“AstraZeneca has authorised to manufacture the vaccine in the Serum Institute of India, Pune, for bulk production but most of the production would be used for vaccinating a sizeable population of India before it is allowed to Pakistan. We have very good business relations with the Serum Institute of India and we would try our best to procure it as early as possible,” he added.

The SMS official warned the government to remain cautious of people and firms trying to take advantage of the situation by selling the vaccine to the government between $13.5 to $15.5. He clarified that his organisation was the “sole importer” and authorised agents of the British firm AstraZeneca.

“Similarly, there are reports that we have offered to supply the vaccine in thousands of rupees per dose, which is also incorrect and misleading. We cannot supply any product without the approval of DRAP and we hope that it would approve the vaccine price, which we have demanded,” he added.

Following the emergency use authorisation to both the British and Chinese vaccines, the matter has been forwarded to DRAP's pricing board, an official of the DRAP told The News, saying without the approval of pricing board, no product can be sold in Pakistan.
 
KARACHI: Although the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has granted approval for the emergency use of Oxford-Astrazeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, it is unclear when the inoculations will be available in Pakistan as the pharmaceutical company’s authorised agents are yet to place orders.

Last week, the Sindh Medical Stores (SMS) was allowed to import the vaccine. Talking to The News, SMS official Usman Ghani said at the moment the British-Swedish company was supply the vaccine to countries that had already booked vaccine doses and paid in advance.

“We don’t know when we would be able to get hold of the first consignment of the vaccine as it has been already purchased by the several countries of the world.”

Ghani said AstraZeneca has authorised the manufacture of the vaccine in Serum Institute of India in Pune for bulk production but most of that would be used for vaccinating a sizeable population of India before it is allowed to Pakistan. “We have very good business relations with the Serum Institute of India and we would try our best to procure it as early as possible.”

Vaccine for $6-7 per dose
The local firm has offered to provide the vaccine at the cost of $6 to $7 (Rs1,000 to Rs1,200) per dose to the federal and provincial governments if procured in bulk quantity (30 to 50 million doses).

To the private sector, the firm has offered Rs2,000 to Rs2,500 per dose if they place orders of 10,000 or more doses. “But it should be very clear that we would only be providing the vaccine to reputed institutions like Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH), Shaukat Khanum hospital, and others,” stressed Ghani.

When asked about firms offering to procure vaccine for $13.5 to $15.5 to the Sindh government, Ghani underscored that his company was the “sole importer” and “authorized agents” of the AstraZeneca company in Pakistan – which was not even ready to supply the vaccine directly to Pakistan.

“Similarly, there are reports that we have offered to supply the vaccine in thousands of rupees per dose, which is also incorrect and misleading. We cannot supply any product without the approval of DRAP and we hope that it would approve the vaccine price, which we have demanded,” he added.

No product can be sold in Pakistan without DRAP approving the price
Meanwhile, a DRAP official said no product can be sold in Pakistan without the approval of the pricing board. “The DRAP’s pricing board is reviewing the requests for price approval of both the vaccine.”

Responding to a query, the DRAP official maintained that both Oxford-Astrazeneca and China’s Sinopharm vaccines have been given emergency use authorisation and if any Adverse Effect Following Immunization (AEFI) was observed, the emergency use authorisation could be withdrawn immediately.
 
Pakistan may be receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the first quarter of the year under the World Health Organization's COVAX programme.

The global initiative signed an advance purchase agreement with American pharmaceutical for up to 40 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine candidate - which has already been approved for emergency use by the global health body.

A statement issued last week read that the vaccine rollout will commence with the "successful negotiation and execution of supply agreements."

COVAX also confirmed it would receive first 100 million doses of the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) under an existing agreement with the Indian firm.

"Of these first 100 million doses, the majority are earmarked for delivery in the first quarter of the year, pending WHO Emergency Use Listing," read the statement. "A decision on this vaccine candidate is anticipated in the middle of February at the earliest."

The global scheme anticipates another 50 million doses of the Oxford-Astrazeneca vaccine would be available in the first quarter of this year under an existing agreement with AstraZeneca.

“Today marks another milestone for COVAX: pending regulatory approval for the AstraZeneca/Oxford candidate and the successful conclusion of the supply agreement for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, we expect to be able to begin deliveries of life-saving COVID-19 vaccines February," said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, which leads COVAX procurement and delivery.

"This is not just significant for COVAX, it is a major step forward for equitable access to vaccines, and an essential part of the global effort to beat this pandemic. We will only be safe anywhere if we are safe everywhere."

“The urgent and equitable rollout of vaccines is not just a moral imperative, it’s also a strategic and economic imperative,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of WHO. “This agreement with Pfizer will help to enable COVAX to save lives, stabilise health systems and drive the global economic recovery.”

“These purchase agreements open the door for these lifesaving vaccines to become available to people in the most vulnerable countries,” said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. “But at the same time we are securing vaccines we must also ensure that countries are ready to receive them, deploy them, and build trust in them.”
 
Pakistan's Covid-19 vaccination drive will be launched next week, starting with front-line health workers, federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar said on Wednesday.

"The system for vaccination is in place. Hundreds of vaccination centres in the country will be administering Covid vaccine," Umar, who is also the head of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), said in a tweet.

“God willing, the vaccination of front-line health workers will start next week,” he added.


China has pledged to donate 500,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine made by the Chinese firm SinoPharm to Pakistan.

A general view of the Khaliq Dina Hall and Library building, which has been converted to be used as a vaccination centre for administering the Covid-19 vaccine, in Karachi, January 27. — Reuters
Two government sources told Reuters the first batch would be flown in on Saturday.

Pakistan has so far approved three coronavirus vaccines — the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the vaccine developed by Chinese state-owned firm China National Pharmaceutical Group (SinoPharm) and Russian-developed Sputnik V.

Officials say the authorisations will be reviewed quarterly with regard to safety, efficacy and quality.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan has said Pakistan could get “in the range of tens of millions” of vaccine doses under an agreement with China's Cansino Biologics Inc.

Cansino's Ad5-nCoV vaccine candidate is nearing completion of Phase III clinical trials in Pakistan, and preliminary results may be available by mid-February, Sultan said.

The government also expects China to donate a further million vaccine doses.

Dr Ghazna Khalid, a member of the government task force on Covid-19, said Pakistan would procure vaccines from various markets.

“There's going to be an accumulation of vaccines, a consortium available, there's going to be Chinese vaccines, there's going to be AstraZeneca,” she said.

“We are the fifth biggest country in the world, and it's going to be very difficult to immunise.”

Meanwhile, the availability of free-of-cost Covid-19 vaccine seems to have been assured for Pakistan as Covax announced earlier this month that it will acquire 150 million doses in the first quarter and two billion doses by the end of the year.

It further said that, out of the two billion doses, 1.3bn will be provided to 92 lower-income economies. As a result of this agreement, the chances of Pakistan getting the free doses in the first quarter of the current year seem to have brightened.

Talking to Dawn, Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) spokesperson Sajid Shah had said it was a positive development and expressed the hope that Pakistan would get the vaccine in the current quarter.

The country reported 1,563 new coronavirus infections and 74 deaths in the latest 24-hour period, taking the total number of cases to more than 537,477, with 11,450 deaths.
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Happy to share that in addition to the 500,000 doses of Sinopharm, almost 7 million does of AstraZeneca to be made available in Q1 and given to the public free of cost! Pakistan’s vaccine drive starts next week, beginning with frontline healthcare workers. <a href="https://t.co/6nJACx9aL7">pic.twitter.com/6nJACx9aL7</a></p>— Faisal Sultan (@fslsltn) <a href="https://twitter.com/fslsltn/status/1355532642578550785?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Good news on covid vaccine front. Recieved letter from Covax of indicative supply of up to 17 million doses of AstraZeneca in 1st half 2021. About 6 million will be recieved by March with delivery starting in Feb. We signed with Covax nearly 8 months back to ensure availability</p>— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) <a href="https://twitter.com/Asad_Umar/status/1355531498871549958?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 30, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
A special plane of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) left for China on Sunday to bring back the first batch of the 500,000 vaccine doses that China had promised to provide to Pakistan earlier this month, according to a statement by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).
The NCOC has already decided upon a "comprehensive strategy" for the administration of the coronavirus vaccines and other administrative measures.

"All necessary measures have been put in place for vaccine storage at Islamabad and [transportation] of vaccine to various federating units particularly to Sindh and Balochistan through air," the statement said.

It added that a central control cell has been established at the NCOC while cells have also been set up at provincial and district levels for the vaccination drive.


Containers of SinoPharm's Covid-19 vaccine doses. — Photo provided by Naveed Siddiqui
A day earlier, Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar said that the Chinese vaccine would be sufficient for 250,000 healthcare workers as two doses were required for every person.

"As 400,000 healthcare workers have registered themselves, it has therefore been decided that instead of considering the population of the federating units, the number of registered healthcare workers would be considered before dispatching the vaccine. In this way, the vaccine can be dispatched for 30pc, 40pc or 50pc of the registered healthcare workers," he said.

The minister said it would take two to three weeks to vaccinate healthcare workers and was hopeful that the new consignment would arrive before its utilisation.

The vaccine was developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, a subsidiary of state-owned conglomerate Sinopharm. The company announced last month that preliminary data from last-stage trials had shown it to be 79.3 per cent effective.

Vaccine administration strategy
Last week, the NCOC unveiled an eight-step process for registration and inoculation once the vaccines became available. Umar had said at the time that the country's Covid-19 vaccination drive would begin this week.

The forum said that an online portal — National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) — has been created which will be operated by the NCOC. Human interaction within the portal will be minimised to keep the system transparent.

In addition to NIMS, numerous Adult Vaccine Centres (AVC) have been established across the country which will be run by the National Vaccination and Administration Control Cell (NVACC). Coordination cells have also been established at provincial and district levels, the NCOC statement said.
 
Pakistan orders vaccines for parliamentarians, staff and families

Pakistan-covid-swab-_1774ee647b5_large.jpg



Islamabad: Pakistan’s Senate Deputy Chairman Saleem Mandviwalla has announced that an order of 200,000 vaccines for COVID-19 has been placed to administer to parliamentarians, staff members of the Senate and their families.

In an interview with a private news channel, the deputy chairman said the order has been placed through the embassy of China in Pakistan.

He said that he had asked Dr Faisal Sultan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health if the government was unable to decide and procure, the private sector should be allowed to acquire it.

Dr Sultan made it clear the government had already given approval and the private sector could procure, he said. Therefore, we have placed an order for the Chinese vaccines for the Senate members, staff and parliamentarians, he said.

Pakistan has so far approved three coronavirus vaccines — the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, the vaccine developed by Chinese state-owned firm China National Pharmaceutical Group (SinoPharm) and Russian-developed Sputnik V.


Meanwhile, coronavirus cases have reportedly increased in the government-run colleges across Karachi, according to official data.

The first among the colleges with the highest number of COVID-19 cases is the Sir Syed Government Girls College where about 58 staff members have tested positive.

Shaheed-e- Millat Girls College comes second with 21 staff members getting infected with COVID-19.

Recently, three districts in Karachi reported 100 per cent increase in the coronavirus positivity rate in the past week, Sindh Health Department said Friday. The province’s health department said the spike in coronavirus positivity rates can be attributed to the fact that people have quit following the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs).

https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pak...arliamentarians-staff-and-families-1.76826835
 
The first batch of Covid-19 vaccines arrived in Pakistan from China on Monday via a special Pakistan Air Force (PAF) aircraft.

The batch contains 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine that has been gifted by China. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health (SAPM) Dr Faisal Sultan announced the development in a tweet and expressed his gratitude to the Chinese government and "everyone who made this happen".

"NCOC and provinces played an instrumental role in tackling Covid. I salute our frontline healthcare workers for their efforts and they'll be first to get vaccinated," he tweeted.


According to real-time pictures shared with media, the PAF plane had landed in Beijing on Sunday at 7pm (4pm PST) and Sinopharm’s vaccine was loaded on it.

The plane landed at the Noor Khan Airbase in Islamabad on Monday morning. According to a statement by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), a vaccine handing over ceremony will be held at the airbase at 2pm and will be attended by Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Chinese Ambassador to Pakistan Nong Rong.

China has donated 500,000 jabs, with which the frontline healthcare workers will be vaccinated. Over 400,000 health professionals have applied for vaccination.

The registration process of citizens over 65 years would start in the next 10 to 15 days, Planning Minister and NCOC chair Asad Umar had told Dawn.

“As the doses will be stored in Islamabad, there is a possibility that vaccination will start a day earlier in the federal capital compared to the rest of the country,” Umar added.

An official of the Ministry of National Health Services, requesting not to be named, said arrangements were in place to maintain the cold chain management of the vaccine, right from storing it in a warehouse to its administration to healthcare workers.

“There is a warehouse of the Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI) which will be used to store the vaccine. Besides, we have developed the National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) through which we will monitor from Islamabad the doses utilised in each province and district and how many more were required. We will ensure that the new stocks are available before the existing ones run out,” he said.

“Not only have we secured 500,000 free doses from our all-weather friend China but another 1.1m jabs, which had been pre-booked from Beijing, will also arrive,” the official said, adding that Covax had also given us a written assurance that it would provide 17m doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the first six months of the ongoing year.

“Out of these 17m, around 7m will be received before the end of March. We are confident that the healthcare workers, citizens over 65 years of age, people in the age bracket of 50 and 65 years and those with chronic diseases will be vaccinated by the end of June,” he added.

Vaccination drive
Last week, Umar had announced that the vaccination drive — which is already underway in several countries — will begin in Pakistan this week, starting with frontline health workers.

Pakistan’s vaccine strategy has been finalised and, after announcement of registration of different segments included in the priority list, citizens will have to send their computerised national identity card (CNIC) number to 1166 through SMS or through NIMS website for registration. After verification, a designated vaccine centre on the basis of the present address mentioned in the CNIC as well as a pin code will be sent to citizens through SMS.
 
Side effects of the vaccine are scary. I will only take the jag if it becomes mandatory which hopefully it will not. Only those who suffer from diabetes need insulin similarly only those with Covid 19 need the vaccine. Bill Gates seems keener on it then any qualified doctor yet I guarantee he will never take it himself.
 
PakLFC said:
Side effects of the vaccine are scary. I will only take the jag if it becomes mandatory which hopefully it will not. Only those who suffer from diabetes need insulin similarly only those with Covid 19 need the vaccine. Bill Gates seems keener on it then any qualified doctor yet I guarantee he will never take it himself.
Click to expand...

Had the vaccine 2 weeks ago. No issues other than a sore arm where the jab was given and feeling tired for a couple of days.

I have Asthma and work frontline in the UK so got early.
 
Muddaser said:
Had the vaccine 2 weeks ago. No issues other than a sore arm where the jab was given and feeling tired for a couple of days.

I have Asthma and work frontline in the UK so got early.
Click to expand...

Sometimes can take a while for the effects to show. I know many people who regret taking the vaccine. Here's hoping you remain safe.
 
PakLFC said:
Sometimes can take a while for the effects to show. I know many people who regret taking the vaccine. Here's hoping you remain safe.
Click to expand...

After 2 weeks?

Come on man.

I know 80-90 year olds who have taken it with no issues after 2 months.
 
Muddaser said:
After 2 weeks?

Come on man.

I know 80-90 year olds who have taken it with no issues after 2 months.
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Good if it works and bad if it does not. From what I know those with underlying health conditions can be at greater risk of the virus so perhaps need the jag more too.
 
Pakistan's coronavirus vaccination drive to start today: Asad Umar

Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar on Tuesday said the country would start its vaccination drive from today.

The federal minister, who also oversees the national coronavirus strategy, said, “COVID-19 vaccination drive will start today in the presence of Prime Minister Imran Khan while in the provincial capitals it will start from tomorrow”.

He said that the health workers would be the first to get the vaccine shots.

On Monday, Pakistan received 0.5 million doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine from China which is being distributed across all the provinces through land and air.

https://www.geo.tv/latest/332949-pakistans-covid-19-vaccination-drive-to-start-today-asad-umar
 
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Has the vaccine actually killed anyone or is she spreading fake news?

LAHORE: Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid on Monday advised people to vaccinate at their "own risk", saying there were side effects related to the COVID-19 vaccine, which she also claimed caused "deaths in some countries."
Click to expand...

https://www.thenews.com.pk/latest/7...id-19-vaccine-caused-deaths-in-some-countries

The PM is doing his best to promote the vaccine then you get comments like this from the health minister of ~110 million people.
 
Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday evening oversaw the start of Pakistan's coronavirus vaccination campaign, with the first jab administered to a doctor in Islamabad.

Speaking at a ceremony to mark the launch of the drive, the premier congratulated his government's health team for moving rapidly to secure the vaccine and thanked China for donating 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to Pakistan.

He reiterated that the vaccine will be first administered to health workers working with Covid-19 patients, followed by the elderly in the high-risk age group.

"This (vaccine) is being distributed equitably among all the provinces so no one thinks we've provided more of it to one province," he said.

Prime Minister Imran urged all healthcare workers to get the vaccine, saying they were most at risk. He also appealed to the public to follow the Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) and wear a mask.

"If Allah has blessed Pakistan as compared to the rest of the world, we should be grateful for that and take full precautions," he emphasised. "If there is anything that slows the spread of the virus, it is a mask."

He said the government had reopened schools and would do the same for hospitals, and that Pakistan's Covid-19 cases were "falling". But he stressed that it was important for people to follow the SOPs in order to save lives.

"Look at what is happening in Europe, America — they have had more than 400,000 deaths, [...] while there is a complete lockdown in Britain," the premier said, noting that while some Western countries had shut down their economies, Pakistan's economy was functioning and restrictions were in place only in the services sector.

"If you take precautions, we will open the other sectors as well."

Before the premier's speech, a doctor was given the country's first Covid-19 vaccine shot as Imran and his special assistant on health Dr Faisal Sultan stood watching.

Since reporting its first cases of the coronavirus on February 26 last year, Pakistan has so far confirmed more than 547,000 infections, while 11,746 people have lost their lives due to the disease.

The first batch of the vaccines donated by China had reached Islamabad early on Monday morning from Beijing on a special Pakistan Air Force plane.

In a statement on Tuesday evening, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said the first tranche of the Covid vaccine had reached all federating units, adding that the doses for Sindh and Balochistan were dispatched by air. It said the provinces' inoculation drive will begin on Wednesday (tomorrow).

Talking to Dawn earlier, SAPM on Health Dr Faisal Sultan had said the vaccine would be dispatched to the provinces on Tuesday (today) and hoped that the inoculation process would start at the earliest.

"Though it is being asked how many doses will be sent to each province, to me it does not matter as the second consignment will reach before the first batch runs out. I have suggested that vaccination should be started in cities and hospitals from where the most cases are being reported," he said.

A senior official of the Ministry of National Health Services, requesting not to be named, said it was a major development as Pakistan had been included in the list of countries that had stocks of Covid-19 vaccine.

Besides the Sinopharm vaccine, the government has also approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine and Russia's Sputnik V shot for emergency use in Pakistan.

On Saturday, Planning Minister Asad Umar had announced that the government had rec*eived a letter from Covax saying 17 million doses of the Astra*Zeneca vaccine would be provided to Pakistan in the first half of 2021.

Out of the 17m doses, 7m will be available by March, Umar said.
 
70pc population to be administered Covid-19 vaccine by year end: Dr Faisal

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan said on Wednesday that 70 per cent of the country's population will receive the Covid-19 vaccine by the current year's end.

"The vaccines will be administered in a phased process, with frontline healthcare workers being the first ones to receive the doses," Dr Faisal said while addressing a presser at the National Command and Control Centre (NCOC) in Islamabad as the drive kicked-off nationwide.

"The population eligible to receive the doses technically totals 100 million and only those above the age of 18 can receive it," he added

According to the SAPM, the first phase will start today by administering the vaccine to some 0.5 million healthcare workers. In the second phase, it will be administered to about 9.5 million citizens above the age of 65 years.

"In the third phase, the doses will be given to 0.6 million general healthcare staffers and to the 6.3 million people between the age of 60 to 65."
 
Vaccination drives against the novel coronavirus started simultaneously in all federating units of the country on Wednesday, a day after 500,000 doses of the vaccine arrived in Islamabad as a gift from China.

As per the government's vaccination strategy, health workers were the first to receive the vaccine.

Simultaneous inauguration ceremonies, held in major cities of all provinces as well as in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, were attended by the respective chief executives and other high ranking officials.

Planning Minister Asad Umar, who is also the chair of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), spoke to all the federating units through video link along with prime minister's aide Dr Faisal Sultan ahead of the inoculations.

NCOC officials including Lt Gen Hamooduz Zaman Khan were also present along with Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Poverty Alleviation Dr Sania Nishtar while China's Commercial Minister Xie Guoxiang was the chief guest.

The first jab of the vaccine was administered to a doctor in Islamabad yesterday after Prime Minister Imran Khan launched the vaccination campaign. Today, Umar and other officials oversaw more inoculations at the ceremony.

Addressing the ceremonies via video link today, Umar paid tribute to the frontline health workers for their "sacrifices and meritorious services" and termed them as the "real heroes" who put their lives on the line in the fight against the novel coronavirus.

The planning minister also thanked China for gifting 500,000 vaccine doses to Pakistan which enabled the government to inoculate the national immunisation drive.

He further said that the holding of simultaneous inaugural ceremonies reflected a national effort and collaboration between the provinces and the federal government in the fight against the contagion.

Dr Sultan, in his address, assured the nation of the vaccine's efficacy saying that the vaccine had "been tested on thousands [of people] and has proven to be safe and effective so we don't need to worry".

"Let me tell you something about the Sinopharm vaccine," he said. "It is a good vaccine, its efficacy is between 79-86 per cent."

He expressed hope that by the end of the year, the government would be able to vaccinate 70pc of the eligible population, which amounts to 100 million people.

He added that more than 500 vaccine centres had been established and according to the current capacity, 40,000 people can be vaccinated daily. The government was aiming to increase this number, he said.

Sindh
The vaccination drive in Sindh kicked off with an inauguration ceremony in Karachi's Dow University Hospital Ojha, where an adult vaccination centre had been established.

The ceremony, which was attended by Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and provincial Health Minister Dr Azra Pechuho, started with the administration of the vaccine on a health worker, Dr Tanveer Ahmed, while his colleagues and officials looked on.

The ceremony was also attended by officials of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) and representatives of the Chinese consulate, according to Sindh CM House's Twitter account.

Speaking on the occasion, CM Shah said that Sindh had received 83,000 doses of the vaccine, all of which will be provided to frontline health workers. He told the attendees that there are 320,000 health workers in Sindh, out of which 180,000 were working on the frontline.

The chief minister said that in the first phase, the vaccination drive will be held in Karachi, Hyderabad and Shaheed Benazirabad as the number of Covid-19 cases in these cities are high.

He thanked China as well as the federal government for providing the doses and added that the Sindh government is in talks with Beijing and pharmaceutical companies so it can procure the vaccine as well.

He said that a "timetable" should be provided and lamented that it was not clear how many doses will be provided and at what time.

Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar was the chief guest at the inauguration ceremony of the vaccination drive which was held in Punjab House, Islamabad. The ceremony was also attended by provincial Governor Chaudhry Sarwar.

Speaking on the occasion, Buzdar said that the province was provided with 70,000 doses of the vaccine, which will be provided to health workers in the first phase. More doses will be provided in the next three weeks, he said. He added that 189 centres were established in the province to administer the vaccine and more than 600 people had been trained.

In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the vaccination drive started in Peshawar's Naseerullah Babar Hospital, where the provincial chief minister's focal person on Covid-19 MPA Dr Asiya Asad was in attendance. KP Chief Minister Mahmood Khan, who was in Islamabad at the time, delivered a message broadcast on state TV.

In his address, he said that the provincial government had received 16,000 doses of the vaccine from the Centre, which will be given to frontline health workers in KP. About 800,000 health workers in the province have to be vaccinated.

Balochistan Chief Minister Jam Kamal inaugurated the drive in Quetta, where he thanked the federal government for providing the vaccine to the province in the initial phase. He noted that the pandemic was a "huge challenge".

The chief minister also remembered doctors and medical professionals who had passed away due to Covid-19 complications.

The provincial chief secretary had earlier said that the Balochistan government has received 5,000 doses of the vaccine and will receive another 5,000 later.

Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Balochistan President Dr Aftab Kakar was the first to receive the vaccine in the province.

The vaccination drive in GB began at the governor house where health workers were administered the jabs. GB Governor Raja Jalal Hussain Maqpoon was also present on the occasion along with other government officials. NCOC officials also attended the event through video link.

According to the region's health department, the Centre had provided 3,000 vaccine doses to GB's government.
 
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Inshallah will be opening up registration next week for covid vaccination for those 65 years and above. The vaccination of those who register in this category will start in march</p>— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) <a href="https://twitter.com/Asad_Umar/status/1359457509786927104?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 10, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
Pakistan starts registration of citizens over age of 65 for COVID-19 vaccination

ISLAMABAD: Head of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) Asad Umar announced on Monday that the government will start vaccinating citizens over the age of 65 for coronavirus in March for which the registration process has started from today.

"Pleased to announce that registration for getting COVID vaccine is now open for all citizens 65 and above," said the minister who is in charge of spearheading the country's fight against coronavirus.

The minister said that those interested in getting themselves vaccinated can write down their CNIC number and send a message on 1166.

"Inshallah vaccinations for this age group will start in March," said Umar.

COVAX tranche to be used for vaccinating over 65: Yasmin Rashid

Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid, told DAWN TV on Sunday, that the country will use the tranche of vaccine doses it gets via the global COVAX platform to vaccinate citizens over the age of 65.

She said that vaccine will arrive in beginning of March.

“Those [doses] will be used for the common people above the age of 65 years,” she said.

The minister also shared that once Pakistan vaccinates people over the age of 65 it will expand the campaign to citizens over the age of 60.

Taimur Jhagra lauds NCOC, Faisal Sultan, Asad Umar

Separately, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Health Minister Taimur Jhagra lauded the NCOC, SAPM on Health Dr Faisal Sultan and NCOC head Asad Umar for their "tremendous job".

"The NCOC, @Asad_Umar & @fslsltn have done a tremendous job of ensuring a smooth vaccine roll out across Pakistan," tweeted Jhagra.

The minister believes that Pakistan's vaccination campaign will "roll out" in full swing in the next few months as the private sector will also start administering the drug.

Earlier this month Pakistan had started its countrywide vaccination drive with the frontline healthcare workers being the first one to get the important drug.

The country initiated its vaccination campaign after receiving 0.5 million doses of Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine from China. The doses were later distributed across all the provinces through land and air.

Pakistan has approved four COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use including two from China and one each from UK and Russia.

Pakistan’s vaccine strategy

The authorities have established Adult Vaccine Administration across the country and an inoculation process is in place supported by the digital mechanism.

For adult vaccine administration of the first tranche, there have been 189 designated health care facilities in Punjab, 14 in Sindh, 280 in KP, 44 in Balochistan, 14 in ICT, 25 in AJK and 16 in GB for the complete vaccine administration process.

The NCOC is acting as the nerve centre while designated core centres have been established at the provincial / district and Tehsil level.

The entire process is managed through a digital National immunisation management system ( NIMS) with minimum human intervention.
Click to expand...

Link: https://www.geo.tv/latest/335013-go...of-citizens-over-age-of-65-in-march-asad-umar
 
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ISLAMABAD, Feb 16 (APP): The national tally on Tuesday of total active COVID-19 cases recorded 25,383 with 958 more people tested positive for the deadly virus and 1,064 people recovered from the disease during the last 24 hours.

Forty seven corona patients have died during past 24 hours, 42 of them were under treatment in hospital and five in their respective quarantines or at their homes on Monday, according to the latest update issued by the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).

During the last 24 hours most of the deaths had occurred in the Punjab followed by Sindh.

It added that out of the total 47 deaths during last 24 hours 11 patients died on ventilators.

Maximum ventilators were occupied in four major areas including Multan 37 percent, Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) 31 percent, Bahawalpur 32 percent and Lahore 37percent.

Maximum oxygen beds (alternate oxygen providing facility other than ventilator administered as per medical requirement of COVID patient) was also occupied in four major areas of Gujrat 61 percent, Peshawar 40 percent, Multan 23 percent, and Lahore 21 percent.

Around 255 ventilators were occupied elsewhere in the country while no COVID affected person was on ventilator in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Balochistan.

Some 31,905 tests were conducted across the country on Monday, including 10,609 in Sindh, 10,445 in Punjab, 5,775 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), 3,845 in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT), 437 in Balochistan, 339 in GB, and 445 in AJK.

Around 527,061 people have recovered from the disease so far across Pakistan making it a significant count with over 90 percent recovery ratio of the affected patients.

Since the pandemic outbreak, a total of 564,824 cases were detected that also included the perished, recovered and under treatment COVID-19 patients so far, including AJK 9,532, Balochistan 18,946, GB 4,941, ICT 42,808, KP 69,885, Punjab 164,696 and Sindh 254,016.

About 12,380 deaths were recorded in country since the eruption of the contagion. Around 4,226 perished in Sindh among seven of them died during past 24 hours. Four of them died in the hospital and three out of the hospital.

5,084 in Punjab had died with 33 deaths in past 24 hours. 31 of them died in the hospital and two out of the hospital on Monday. 2,000 in KP where five of them died in hospital on Monday, 486 in ICT, 199 in Balochistan, 102 in GB and 283 in AJK among two of them succumbed to the deadly virus on Monday.

A total of 8,498,022 corona tests have been conducted so far, while 631 hospitals are equipped with COVID facilities. Some 2,101 corona patients were admitted in hospitals across the country.
 
https://www.dawn.com/news/1608067/phase-ii-pakistan-to-start-vaccinating-citizens-over-65-years-on-receiving-28m-doses-around-march-2-says-sapm

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan on Thursday shared that Pakistan would receive 2.8 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine through the Covax programme around March 2 after which the next phase of vaccinations against the coronavirus would begin.

Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, he said: "According to our information, 2.8m doses will reach around March 2. This is very good news because we will be able to start the next phase [of the vaccination programme]."

Dr Sultan said more than 52,000 frontline healthcare workers had been vaccinated till now. Calling them role models, he said the healthcare workers getting vaccinated showed "how much they trust the vaccine's efficacy".

Elaborating on the changes the government has brought to its vaccination strategy, he said that previously, frontline healthcare workers had to register themselves and then a list was created and they were informed of the specific vaccination centre they could go to in order to receive their shot.

"A small change has been made. If you are a frontline healthcare worker below the age of 60, you just have to send your CNIC (computerised national identity card) number to 1166 and then visit your nearby vaccination centre [to get the shot]. Your vaccination will be ensured."

The list of vaccination centres is also available on the website of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), he added.

The SAPM said that the registration process for healthcare workers who were not working on the frontline, including doctors, nurses and pharmacists, would begin from February 22. "They will be able to register themselves [easily] through a website and they can visit any vaccination centre after two to three days and get vaccinated."

Talking about the registration process for citizens aged above 65 years, he said they should send their CNIC numbers to 1166 without any dashes or spaces. They would then receive a reply, giving them further information about the mechanism for getting vaccinated.

"We have full expectation that [their vaccination] will start at the beginning of March."

He said people could visit the NCOC website or the health ministry's website for further information.

Dr Sultan said the government was prioritising vaccination for people over 65 because the majority of the 12,500+ fatalities due to Covid in the country were of people in that age bracket.

"I believe it is important to start vaccination from them. If you are over 65, get yourself registered and if you are less than 65, then help [people over that age] with registration."

Providing clarity on the vaccines that would be used, the SAPM said that right now, the Sinopharm vaccine was being used which had been received from China.

"We did not recommend that it be used for people over 60. It does not mean the vaccine is not safe and effective. The reason was that whenever trials are held for vaccines, data is analysed and decisions are taken. When this trial was conducted, there was not enough participation of people over 60 for statistical analysis."

He asked the nation to "trust the people" the government was choosing to oversee the vaccination process and take decisions. "People should have confidence that the [officials] the government is choosing are looking at [the vaccines] minutely and prioritise public's health."

He said people over the age of 60 would be given shots of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Covax programme for Covid-19 vaccines published its first distribution list earlier this month, planning enough doses for dozens of countries to immunise more than three per cent of their populations by mid-year.

It broke down for the first time how the programme's initial 337.2m doses will be distributed, with first deliveries expected in late February.

Countries will receive doses in proportion to population size, with the most going to India (97.2m), Pakistan (17.2m), Nigeria (16m), Indonesia (13.7m), Bangladesh (12.8m) and Brazil (10.6m).
Click to expand...
 
Pakistan's coronavirus tally reached 568,506 on Friday after 1,245 new cases were reported across the country during the past 24 hours.

Currently, there are 24,139 COVID-19 cases. Sindh has so far reported 255,039 cases, Punjab 166,242, Balochistan 18,967 and KP has confirmed 70,493 infections. Similarly, Gilgit-Baltistan has reported 4,947 cases, Islamabad 43,145 and Azad Jammu and Kashmir has reported 9,673 coronavirus cases.

During the last 24 hours, 34,754 tests were conducted. So far, 8,602,515 people have been tested for coronavirus. 40 more people also lost their lives to coronavirus in the past 24 hours. Since its outbreak last year, coronavirus has claimed 12,527 lives.

Meanwhile, 1,243 also recovered from the viurs, taking the tally to 531,840. On Thursday, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Health Dr Faisal Sultan said Pakistan that will receive 2.8 million doses of AstraZeneca's vaccine as part of the COVAX.

He further said the vaccine will be used to start a public vaccination programme for people above the age of 60.
 
ISLAMABAD: With most of the Covid-related restrictions having been relaxed despite lukewarm response of even health workers to the government-run vaccination campaign, health experts fear a resurgence in number of cases that may compel the government to declare a third wave of coronavirus in the country.

As 1,176 Covid-19 cases were reported in a day, the health experts Dawn spoke to were of the opinion that the government should have given priority to public health rather than financial concerns and advised the authorities to lift the restrictions only after ensuring that 70pc population has been vaccinated against the deadly disease.

Earlier on Feb 24, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Covid relaxed most of the restrictions on commercial activities, schools, offices and other workplaces, allowing them to function at full strength.

Under the directives, time limit on commercial activities has been lifted and condition of 50 per cent attendance at workplaces removed. Schools have been asked to function five days a week with full strength. Permission to hold indoor wedding ceremonies and opening of cinemas and shrines has been granted with effect from March 15. The decision to allow indoor dining will depend on the outcome of the review meeting to be held on March 10. The NCOC also allowed increase in number of spectators attending Pakistan Super League (PSL) matches from 20pc to 50pc and permitted full attendance during play-offs with stringent standard operating procedures (SOPs). The Election Commission of Pakistan has also been allowed to hold local bodies and cantonment board elections by the end of May or early June.


Doctors want govt to review decisions, with improved focus on vaccination

While talking to Dawn, Secretary General of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) Dr Qaisar Sajjad said: “We are living in a society where people do not follow the SOPs. They even laugh at those wearing face masks. We have already observed the results of lifting of restrictions in September last year when 100 to 200 daily cases were being reported, and within a month the government had to declare a second wave of coronavirus,” he said.

“I believe that restrictions should be lifted after vaccinating 70pc population as only then we can get herd immunity. Just two weeks ago, three cases were reported in Melbourne, Australia. Though all three persons had arrived through foreign flights but the whole Melbourne city was closed for five days. It is unfortunate that we are taking even over 1,000 cases lightly,” he said.

Response to vaccination
While pointing out that response to vaccination drive in Pakistan was very slow, the PMA secretary general blamed the government for it and said that no one at the helm had bothered to handle the issue seriously.

“Actors have been engaged for vaccination campaign rather than renowned doctors. How a person can get medical advice from an actor. Moreover, advertisements should be shown during peak hours. Currently, we see bombardment of advertisements during PSL matches but we don’t see a single ad on vaccination during matches. Also, data of healthcare workers, who have been vaccinated so far, is not being shared. We don’t know how many general practitioners, nurses, etc have been vaccinated,” he said.

Due to lukewarm response to the vaccination, Islamabad’s biggest hospital Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims) has warned its employees of disciplinary action.

Joint executive director of Pims Dr Minhaj-us-Siraj said there was a very slow response by the HCWs, especially nurses, due to which he had no option but to issue a circular to expedite the vaccination. “It is hereby directed that all registered Pims staff must get vaccinated as soon as possible. Otherwise, strict disciplinary action will be taken against the defaulter, as per rules,” read a circular.

Dr Siraj said: “We are in a hurry to vaccinate HCWs as we have to open the out-patient departments. However, staff seems to be reluctant.”

Cases may bounce back
Unfortunately, the government was looking at the issue with mere focus on country’s economic growth rather than public health, Dr Javaid Usman, a microbiologist, said while talking to Dawn.

“Possibility of a third wave cannot be ruled out. We are giving another opportunity to virus to bounce back. We should not forget that now there are more than one variants of virus in Pakistan and they are more infectious and transmissible. Luckily, they are as virulent as previous type. But it is not a good decision to lift restrictions as cases are continuously fluctuating and we have been observing sudden spikes,” he said.

Dr Usman said a new variant of virus that had been initially found in the UK, Brazil and South Africa spread quickly to 92 countries including Pakistan. “We have removed social distancing in schools and PSL matches by only declaring [wearing of] surgical masks mandatory. Surgical mask is almost nothing as compared to size of virus, which can even pass through N-95 masks,” the microbiologist added.

In Pakistan, the first case of the novel coronavirus disease was reported on Feb 26, 2020. By June the number of daily cases rose to 6,000. With strict restrictions in place, cases started decreasing. Shortly afterwards, the government removed the restrictions with the result that cases surged again in October so much that the authorities had to declare it a second wave of virus and to impose the restrictions. The NCOC again lifted the restrictions on Feb 24 only weeks after number of active cases started dropping.

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiative Asad Umar, while talking to the media, had also warned of a third wave of virus if the masses did not strictly adhere to the SOPs.

Islamabad sees spike
Islamabad District Health Officer Dr Zaeem Zia, meanwhile, confirmed to Dawn that the cases had again started increasing, as the city reported 153 cases on Sunday. Since January 14, the number of cases had not crossed the 150 mark in Islamabad.

A document regarding cases in the federal capital, available with Dawn, showed that weekly positivity rate was 2.47pc in the second week of January, it dropped to 1.61pc next week while in the first week of February it was just 1.57pc.

However, the weekly positivity rate again started increasing and in the last week of February (i.e. from Feb 22nd to 28th) it climbed up to 2.65pc.

An official of Ministry of National Health Services, requesting anonymity agreed that it was not a wise decision to lift restriction. “Government seems to be focusing more on economics rather than caring about the health of people. I fear that within a few weeks the situation may start worsening and we may again have to impose restrictions. Unfortunately, we are not getting positive response for vaccination campaign and so far over 100,000 HCWs have been vaccinated. We can only achieve herd immunity if more than 50pc population would be vaccinated,” he said. Meanwhile, NCOC data showed that 1,178 cases and 23 deaths were reported in the past one day while total active cases were 21,836 and 1,994 Covid patients were hospitalised across the country.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2021
 
https://www.dawn.com/news/1610249/180000-senior-citizens-registered-for-vaccination

As the government’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign for over 65-year-old citizens is set to start this week, only 180,000 (2.25 per cent) of around eight million senior citizens in the country have registered themselves for inoculation so far.

The Ministry of National Health Services (NHS) has described it as a slow response, considering that there are around eight million people above 65 years of age in Pakistan.

The government started registration of senior citizens for the vaccination programme on Feb 15 soon after its announcement by Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan on Twitter. “All Pakistanis above the age of 65 can start registration for Covid-19 vaccine starting today. Send an SMS from any mobile phone with your CNIC to 1166 or visit nims.nadra.gov.pk to get registered. Vaccine center and date of appointment be communicated once vaccine arrives,” he had tweeted.

Also, federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar tweeted that the registration was open for the vaccination which would start in the first week of March.

An official of the Ministry of NHS, requesting anonymity, said that according to estimates the population of people, aged 65 and above, was around eight million.

He said: “We urge people that they should register themselves so that they would be inoculated as soon as vaccine would reach at the Adult Vaccination Centres (AVCs) in Pakistan.”

The official admitted that the registration had been started two weeks back but till date only around 180,000 people had got registered for the vaccination which was “not a very positive response”.

Since the launch of the vaccination drive, beginning with health care workers (HCWs) on February 2, half a million doses of Sinopharm’s vaccine, donated by China, have reached Pakistan. Besides, the Pakistan Army donated a stock of vaccine, given by China for the armed forces, to HCWs not more than 60 years of age. The vaccination of health care workers was still under way when the PM’s aide announced registration for the second round of the programme to cover senior citizens.

Earlier, Covax — an international alliance which has pledged to provide free vaccine for 20per cent population of Pakistan — has intimated the government that 2.8 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine are expected to reach Pakistan in the first week of March.

Moreover, around 17.1 million doses will reach Pakistan by the end of June this year. AstraZeneca vaccine can be administered to senior citizens.

According to latest data of National Command and Operation Centre on Covid, as many as 1,392 cases and 36 deaths were reported in a single day. The number of active cases increased to 22,098 as of 1st March while 2,005 patients are hospitalised across the country.

Meanwhile, a board of doctors from Pakistan Institute of Medical Science (PIMS) on Monday conducted medical checkup of the former President Asif Ali Zardari at Zardari House, Islamabad. The team recommended a few essential tests after the check-up that lasted about an hour.
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https://www.dawn.com/news/1610237/two-mayo-staffers-test-positive-weeks-after-first-vaccine-shot

Two health workers in the city have tested positive for Covid-19 after having been administered a vaccine, creating doubts about re-exposure of a significant number of people being vaccinated in Punjab.

The Mayo Hospital health support staffer and his staff nurse wife at the institution were among the seven employees administered the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine recently under a government drive to vaccinate health professionals.

The couple was administered the first shot on Feb 4 and tested positive for Covid-19 three weeks later.

A senior health official suggested random sampling of other health professionals who have been vaccinated. The health authorities should immediately prepare data and analysis reports of coronavirus vaccine to clear any confusion, he added.

“We were among the first seven employees of the Mayo Hospital Lahore finalised for the vaccination,” Mr Bhatti told Dawn.

“I’m a supervisor and designated to look after treatment protocols for Covid-19 patients,” he further said, adding that he was also assigned to shift bodies of the victims of the virus.

“As I planned to get my second dose of the vaccine on Feb 25, I felt temperature and the doctors who examined me suggested I take a Covid-19 test because of the typical symptoms,” he narrated, adding that the reports issued on Feb 28 came out positive.

Bhatti said his wife, Ismat, had also tested positive the same day. “My wife’s condition had got serious two days ago and she was shifted to the emergency ward of the Mayo Hospital where she remained under treatment,” he added. The couple is now isolated at home and a doctor was in contact with them.

Health and medical experts expressed concern over the situation, saying that the couple had contracted the virus three weeks after being administered their first doses of the vaccine -- a period sufficient to develop immunity.

A senior physician was of the view that there were conflicting reports about the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines. Some shots offered 75 per cent immunity and others 95pc, but the exact duration that the immunity lasted was not known yet.

He said some international researchers believed that the first dose was insufficient to develop immunity, while others said it should start working at least three weeks later.

The primary and secondary healthcare department said antibodies started developing at least 14 days after the first dose of a vaccine. A spokesperson said people should observe all protocols even after getting the vaccine.

He claimed that the Sinopharm vaccine was the best remedy against the infection, saying the government had, in the first phase, vaccinated more than 62 healthcare workers and professionals across the province. In the next phase, those in the 60 years and above age group would be vaccinated.

Meanwhile, 13 more patients of the virus died and 705 tested positive during the last 24 hours in Punjab. Out of these, 393 belonged to Lahore.

The total number of confirmed cases in Punjab has reached 172,054.
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The country in the world first to push Sinopharm saw a spike coinciding with the start of the vaccine campaign....... Many people anecdotally tested positive with symptoms, even after 1 or 2 doses of the vaccine....
 
https://www.dawn.com/news/1610392/pakistan-to-get-10m-doses-of-vaccine-under-covax

Pakistan, Nigeria and Indonesia will be among the biggest recipients of free Covid-19 vaccines before June — more than 10 million doses each — the Covax scheme announced on Tuesday.

Some 238.2 million doses will be distributed around the world by the end of May, in a major acceleration of the programme aimed at boosting access to coronavirus jabs in poorer nations.

Though vaccination campaigns have gathered pace globally, the majority of injections have been administered in wealthier countries while many nations have yet to receive a single dose.

But the World Health Organisation (WHO) — a co-leader of the Covax programme — says providing vaccines to all countries is the only way out of the pandemic.

The Covax scheme, which is aimed at ensuring equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, on Tuesday outlined delivery plans for hundreds of millions of doses.

The five biggest confirmed recipients are Pakistan (14,640,000), Nigeria (13,656,000), Indonesia (11,704,800), Bangladesh (10,908,000) and Brazil (9,122,400).

They are followed by Ethiopia (7,620,000), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (5,928,000), Mexico (5,532,000), Egypt (4,389,600) and Vietnam (4,176,000).

Iran, Myanmar, Kenya and Uganda are also in line for more than three million doses each.

Overall by the end of May, India is likely to be the biggest recipient of Covax doses, but its allocation was not finalised before Tuesday’s distribution list publication.

The Pacific island nation of Tuvalu is meanwhile set to receive the smallest number of doses at 4,800, followed by Nauru and Monaco with 7,200 each.

Covax is co-led by the WHO, the Gavi vaccine alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

“Our goal is to protect as many people as possible,” said Gavi chief executive Seth Berkley.

“Covax’s mission is to help end the acute phase of the pandemic as soon as possible.” The deliveries include some 237 million doses of the AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccine, being manufactured in India and South Korea, and another 1.2 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which requires special ultra-cold storage.

The scheme is aiming to distribute enough doses to vaccinate up to 27 per cent of the population in the 92 poorest participating economies by the end of the year.

Ghana, Ivory Coast, South Korea and Colombia have already received their first shipments of vaccines through Covax.

Nigeria, Angola, Cambodia and the DR Congo were all due to receive their first vaccine doses via Covax on Tuesday.

Most wealthy countries have procured their own vaccines, and so far some 260 million vaccine doses have been administered globally.
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ISLAMABAD: The number of Covid-19 cases has surged by around 50 per cent ever since the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) eased restrictions late last month.

As many as 1,714 people contracted the virus and 38 lost their lives in a single day while the number of active cases increased to 17,352 on March 6.

On Feb 24, the NCOC had decided to relax most coronavirus-related restrictions on commercial activities, schools, offices and other workplaces, allowing them to function at full strength. Under the directives, time limit on commercial activities had been lifted while condition of 50pc attendance at workplaces removed.

Schools were asked to function five days a week while permission to hold indoor wedding ceremonies and opening of cinemas and shrines was granted with effect from March 15.

The decision to allow ind*oor dining will depend on the outcome of a review mee*ting to be held on March 10.

The NCOC had also all*o*w*ed an increase in the number of spectators atten*ding the Pakistan Super League matches from 20pc to 50pc and permitted full attendance during play-offs with strict standard operating procedures (SOPs). However, the tournament was postponed on March 4 after some players were found infected by Covid-19.

The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) was also given the go-ahead to hold local bodies and cantonment board elections by the end of May or early June.

According to the NCOC data, 1,176 cases were recorded on Feb 27 and 1,163 on March 1, but the number suddenly increased to 1,388 on March 2 and 1,519 on March 4.

The data released on Saturday showed that 1,714 cases, which is around 50pc rise in less than two weeks, and 38 casualties were reported in a single day.

As many as 210 ventilators were in use across the country with Lahore having 34pc occupancy rate, followed by Islamabad, 32pc; Peshawar, 21pc and Multan, 17pc.

Data on oxygenated beds showed that Gujrat had a 94pc occupancy ratio, Peshawar, 38pc; Multan, 30pc and in Islamabad 26pc beds were in use.

A total of 2,002 patients were admitted to hospitals across the country on Saturday.

According to a document, available with Dawn, there are 18 oxygenated beds in Gujrat, out of which 17 were in use.

An official of the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS), requesting anonymity, said efforts were being made to break the chain of the virus.

“We were aware that there would be a spike in cases once the restrictions were eased, but we are still far from the third wave. There are a large number of vacant oxygenated beds and ventilators in hospitals, and though the load has started to rise, we hope that in the coming days we will break the chain of the virus and daily cases will start reducing,” the official said.

It may be mentioned here that Pakistan Medical Association, the representative body of doctors, had suggested the government to enforce the standard operating procedures and impose restrictions to curb the spread of the virus.

Published in Dawn, March 7th, 2021
 
The number of coronavirus cases have almost doubled in a week in Punjab and Lahore, Geo News reported on Sunday.

As per sources in the Punjab health department, the number of daily coronavirus cases in Punjab on February 28 were 528 which have now doubled to 1,044 as of today.

According to the Punjab Health Department, 646 new cases were reported in Lahore on March 6, 90 in Gujrat, and 36 new coronavirus cases were reported in Sialkot.

Moreover, 23 new coronavirus cases emerged in Multan, 31 in Rawalpindi, and 14 cases were reported in Sheikhupura over the past 24 hours, the spokesperson added.

So far, 3,402,377 tests have been conducted in Punjab, according to Primary and Secondary Health Care spokesperson.

GEO
 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The vaccination of people 60 years and older will be starting from Wednesday the 10th of March. Vaccinations will be done in reverse order by age. Which means the oldest person who has registered will be vaccinated first. Full details will be issued tomorrow.</p>— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) <a href="https://twitter.com/Asad_Umar/status/1368488610350137344?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 7, 2021</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
KARACHI: After coronavirus restrictions were relaxed, the COVID-19 positivity ratio in Sindh has seen a sharp rise in the first week of March.

The ratio measures how many people tested for coronavirus actually had the virus (tested positive) as a percentage of total tests conducted.

As per the Sindh Health Department, Hyderabad has reported the highest positivity ratio. The city's positivity ratio has shot up from 2.47% to 8.26% in the first week of the month.

Meanwhile, Karachi’s positivity ratio has increased from 3.27% to 5.66%.

Meanwhile, the positivity ratio in other districts of Sindh has risen from 1.20% to 1.80%.

The health department said that in the last 24 hours, the province-wide positivity ratio stood at an average 4.58%.

It said that on January 18, Sindh’s positivity ratio had stood at 4.78%. It added that from January 18-March 7, the positivity ratio had fallen below 4%.

Th rising positivity ratio may be a cause of concern for the government as the National Command Operation Centre (NCOC) has announced the loosening of some of the coronavirus restrictions that it earlier put in place.

Read more: Pakistan raises issue of fake COVID-19 vaccine at UN forum

However, the NCOC had said last month that the decisions could be reviewed again in view of increased disease prevalence, whenever deemed necessary.
 
https://www.timesnownews.com/india/article/india-to-supply-45-lakh-doses-of-covid-19-vaccine-to-pakistan/730366

Keeping up with its promise of helping the international community in the fight against coronavirus, India will be supplying COVID-19 vaccine doses to Pakistan. The neighbouring country will get 45 million doses of coronavirus vaccine.

India is supplying COVID-19 vaccine to 65 countries. While many foreign nations have received the vaccine on a grant basis, others have paid the price set by the Indian government.

India has provided around 56 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccines under grants assistance countries, including Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, Bangladesh, Nepal, Myanmar and Seychelles.

Here is the list of countries that are receiving 'Made-in-India' COVID19 vaccine supplies.

Bangladesh, Myanmar, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Brazil, Morocco, Oman, Egypt, Algeria, South Africa, Kuwait, UAE, Afghanistan, Barbados, Dominica, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia, El Salvador, Argentina, Serbia, UN Health workers, Mongolia, Ukraine, Ghana, Ivory Coast, St. Lucia, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Vincent & Grenadines

India has approved Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Oxford-AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India.
Click to expand...
 
Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan has begun vaccinating citizens over the age of 60 against the coronavirus, officials say, kicking off the second phase of a countrywide campaign that has seen a slow start so far.

Senior citizens across the country began to receive the first dose of the vaccine at adult vaccination centres on Wednesday, after the country’s health minister announced the launch of the new phase of the campaign earlier this week.

“I knew that as soon as the vaccine comes, I must take it,” said Basharat Ali Zaidi, 88, a retired telecom engineer in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi, who was among the first senior citizens to receive the vaccine.

“I spoke to my son about it, we registered online and [at the vaccination centre today] filled out the form and […] then after two or four questions about whether I had any allergies … they gave me the vaccine,” he said.

More than 300,000 people aged over 60 have registered to receive the vaccine, Health Minister Dr Faisal Sultan told Al Jazeera.

“[The] process started today – prioritising with the oldest citizens, that is over 80, and [we] will work our way down. The over-60 registration is around 300,000 to date but increasing every day,” he said.

The senior citizens have been instructed to register themselves using their government-issued National Identity Card numbers via SMS.

After their details are verified against a government database, they will be issued instructions on when and where to receive the vaccine.

Vaccine recipients will be asked to remain on-site at the vaccination centres for roughly 30 minutes after receiving the vaccine to monitor for any side-effects.

Drive slow to pick up
In February, Pakistan kicked off its vaccination campaign by targeting front-line healthcare workers with doses of the Sinopharm vaccine, donated by China, at 279 vaccination centres.

Uptake was slow to pick up, however, with many healthcare workers expressing concerns regarding the safety or efficacy of the vaccine, officials and experts told Al Jazeera.

Vaccine uptake has also been affected by relative public indifference to the coronavirus, as Pakistan’s experience of COVID-19 has been less severe than many other countries.

As of Wednesday, the country had registered 595,239 cases of the vaccine, with 13,324 deaths since the pandemic began last year.

The country has seen a markedly lower rate of severe disease and death as compared with many European and other countries, according to government data.

The last two weeks, however, have seen a steady increase in daily infections, as most government-mandated restrictions on large gatherings were removed and schools reopened.

On Wednesday, the country’s National Command Operation Centre (NCOC) on the coronavirus reimposed a number of restrictions, including a countrywide mask mandate, recommending a 50 percent work-from-home policy for offices, and reintroducing a 10pm time limit for commercial activities.

The NCOC also said it was cancelling an earlier decision to allow indoor weddings, indoor dining and the opening of cinemas and shrines from next week.

Currently, the country has vaccinated about 200,000 healthcare workers, putting it near last on the list of countries to have begun vaccinations, with 0.09 doses per 100 citizens.
The government has since begun to roll out an awareness campaign on television and other media to encourage people to register to be vaccinated, as well as to dispel misinformation regarding the vaccine.

Pakistan is due to receive 14.6 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX initiative, with the first shipment to arrive this month.

Last week, Sultan, the health minister, told Al Jazeera he expected the vaccination campaign to pick up momentum as more people received the vaccine, helping to assuage others’ concerns regarding possible side-effects.

“Other members of the family did have some concerns [about side-effects],” said Abdullah Zaidi, vaccine recipient Basharat Ali Zaidi’s son. “But they have asked me to register them now that my father is back. I think it does [assuage concerns].”

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/10/pakistan-kicks-off-senior-citizen-coronavirus-vaccinations
 
cric_man said:
Is India donating 45M doses or is it Pakistan buying 45M doses from Oxford-AstraZaneca that are being manufactured by Serum Institute of India?
If it is the former than very Magnanimous of India. If the latter, then typical Indian journalism.
Click to expand...

Pakistan will receive the vaccines via GAVI.


Aztrazeneca cannot sell vaccines made by SII. These vaccines produced by SII belong to SII and not Aztrazeneca. So if Aztrazeneca has to sell vaccines made by SII they have to buy it and then sell it.

Indian govt controls where and how much of the vaccines are exported, countries in Europe are banning vaccine exports. While India is allowing millions of doses to be exported.Not only to pakistan but to various countries.
 
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