A special plane of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) departed for China on Sunday to bring back the first batch of the 500,000 vaccine doses that China had announced to provide to Pakistan earlier this month.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying during a briefing earlier said in order to support our brothers and sisters in Pakistan, the Chinese government has decided to provide a batch of vaccines as aid and will actively coordinate with the relevant Chinese enterprise to speed up the export of vaccines to Pakistan.
The spokesperson also reminded the reporters that this year both countries will be observing the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties.
79.3 percent effective
The vaccine was developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products, a contributor to state-owned conglomerate Sinopharm. Last month the Corporation announced that preliminary data from last-stage trials had shown it to be 79.3 percent effective.
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 authorizations will be reviewed quarterly with regard to safety, efficacy and quality. AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine had been approved for emergency use in Pakistan making it the first coronavirus vaccine to get the green light for use in the South Asian country.
Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) granted emergency use authorization to AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine, the country’s health minister said.
Administrative steps
According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the health ministry in Islamabad already decided upon a comprehensive strategy for the administration of the COVID19 vaccines and other administrative steps.
NCOC said that all essential steps have been put in place for vaccine storage at Islamabad and transportation of vaccines to all provinces especially to Sindh and Balochistan through the air. A central control room has been established at the NCOC while cells have also been set up at provincial and district levels for the vaccination campaign.
Eight-step process for vaccine unveiled
Last Thursday, the NCOC unveiled an eight-step process for registration and vaccination once the vaccines became available in the country. The NCOC during a meeting said that an online portal — National Immunisation Management System (NIMS) — has been formed which will be operated by the central command cell. Human dealings within the portal will be minimized to keep the system translucent.
Several Coordination cells have also been established at provincial and district levels across the country. The Sindh government had also established a Provincial Vaccine Administration Coordination Cell (PVAC).
According to the notification issued by Sindh Health Department, the PVACC is notified in pursuance of the decision of the National Vaccine Task Force (NVTF) – National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC).
The notification stated Sindh Secretary Health Dr. Kazim Hussain Jatoi will be Chairman of the PVACC, EOC Co-ordinator Fayyaz Hussain Abbasi will be Focal Person and Additional Secretary Public Health will be the Deputy Focal Person of PVAC.
Health workers to be vaccinated in the first phase
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan said China has gifted half-million doses of the vaccine to Pakistan, which will be made available to the people free of cost. In the first phase, two categories of people would be administered the vaccine – the frontline healthcare workers and people over 65 years of age.
So for more than 400,000 health workers have been registered across the country for vaccination in the first phase. 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, as per government plan.
In the third phase, one before the general population gets the shots people with co-morbidities (to be confirmed from earlier investigation and prescription) would be immunized.
Every person, who vaccinated would go through various check-ups and verifications and after the vaccination shots, the people would be instructed to stay for at least three hours at a dedicated place inside the center before leaving for home.
Latest COVID-19 situation
The global epidemic coronavirus has claimed 34 more lives in Pakistan and the total death toll has risen to 11,657on Sunday. According to the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), Pakistan reported 34 deaths in the last 24 hours by novel COVID-19 as the number of positive cases has surged to 544,813.
The latest figures issued by the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) showed that 1,599 persons tested positive for coronavirus across the country in the past 24 hours. Sindh remains the worst-hit province by the pandemic in terms of cases followed by Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Islamabad.
Till now 246,437coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 157,353 in Punjab, 66,953 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 41,359 in Islamabad, 18,815 in Balochistan, 8,988 in Azad Kashmir and 4,908 in Gilgit-Baltistan. Pakistan has so far conducted 7,932,196 coronavirus tests and 42,455 in the last 24 hours. 499,974 coronavirus patients have recovered in the country whereas 2,125 patients are in critical condition.Â
Needed compressive vaccine strategy
Vaccine administration units should be set up at all district and tehsil headquarters hospitals and local health centers to make the sure grassroots level approach of the vaccination process.
 Besides, efforts should be made to facilitate the provinces for smooth vaccine administration by resolving all reservations earlier made by provincial authorities. The government should arrange special sessions on vaccine availability and efficient administration for the hospitals across the country.
The private sector should be permitted to import vaccines as it will reduce the burden on the government and licenses should be issued for local manufacturing of the vaccine as it may take years to import jabs for the whole population of Pakistan.
More important, a COVID-19 vaccine remains elusive so far and there is a possibility that it may be effective against the virus as people get re-infected with the corona even after vaccination. Under such circumstances, we may have to learn to live with the disease and make drastic changes in our lifestyle.
