Pakistan to receive 17 million COVISHIELD doses via COVAX route amid 2nd COVID-19 wave

Pakistan will receive 17 million doses of COVISHIELD through COVAX route after it refused to directly procure Indian-me vel coronavirus vaccines. India has reportedly committed 100 lakh doses of vaccines to COVAX, a global initiative which aims at ensuring that middle and lower-income countries get timely access to COVID-19 vaccines. 

In a statement, Dr. Faisal Sultan- Special Assistant to Pakistani Prime Minister mentioned that 35-40% of se doses will be available in first quarter of 2021 itself, while rest will be supplied in second half.

Pakistan which is currently witnessing a second wave of COVID-19 pandemic has approved China's Sipharm vaccine and  Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use. Till w, Pakistan has recorded 5,46,428 confirmed vel coronavirus cases out of which 5,01,252 patients have recovered while 11,683 fatalities have been reported.

Earlier in day, it received 5,00,000 doses of Sipharm vaccine reby paving way for commencement of country's COVID-19 vaccination drive next week. It is pertinent to te that India has sent vaccines as grant assistance and on commercial basis to numerous countries such as Bhutan, Maldives, Banglesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Oman, Brazil, Morocco and Myanmar.

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COVID-19 vaccination in India

On January 3,  Drugs Controller General of India accepted  recommendations of  Subject Expert Committee of Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, paving way for approval of COVISHIELD and COVAXIN. Manufactured by Serum Institute of India with techlogy transfer from Oxford University-AstraZeneca, COVISHIELD is a Recombinant Chimpanzee evirus vector vaccine with its overall efficacy of 70.42 per cent. On or hand, COVAXIN is a Whole Virion Inactivated Corona Virus Vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and NIV.

Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan has me it clear that all recipients of this vaccine will be tracked and monitored as if y are in clinical trial mode. On January 16, PM Modi launched  pan-India rollout of vel coronavirus vaccination drive via video conferencing. In first phase, 3 crore frontline workers shall be vaccinated followed by people d above 50 years and under-50 population group with co-morbidities. A total of 37,58,843 beneficiaries have been vaccinated for vel coronavirus as of 8 am on February 1.

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