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ISLAMABAD: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan has rejected reports regarding the shortage of the Sinopharm vaccine in Pakistan.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad on Tuesday, Dr Faisal Sultan urged citizens to get vaccinated and assured that the government would continue to obtain vaccine doses so that the vaccination process continued unhampered.
The prime minister’s aide said news about the non-availability of the Sinopharm vaccine were unjustified and assured that it was the government’s priority to administer the vaccine’s second dose to people who had received a Sinopharm shot the first time.
Since the Sinopharm vaccine may be reserved for second doses in case of a shortage, those visiting a vaccination centre for their first dose may be administered another vaccine, he explained.
Dr Sultan said, “The priority will always be that a person is administered both the doses of the same vaccine,” adding that significant steps had been taken for the purpose. The prime minister’s aide also dismissed reports regarding the side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine, terming them misleading and misinformation.
He said, “The vaccine is in use in a number of countries in Europe and outside it,” giving the example of Ireland, South Korea and Australia, among others. There were very few side effects of the AstraZeneca vaccine and cases of clotting due to it was a rare occurrence, he added.
Dr Sultan added Even then, to further reduce the chances of clotting because of the vaccine, it would be administered only to persons above the age of 40.
The prime minister’s aide further said that the number of cases of vaccine side effects had been negligible just 4,329 against 3.8 million doses administered thus far in the country. He said six of the cases, which seemed serious, had been investigated and all were found to be coincidental and not caused by Covid-19 vaccines.
He also urged people to follow coronavirus-related standard operating procedures and share information only from trusted and authentic sources, such as the National Command and Operation Centre’s (NCOC’s) website, the health ministry’s website and verified social media accounts.
Vaccine safety profile. Out of 3.8 million+ doses, 4,329 reports of adverse effects have been reported so far. Nearly all reports were of mild, expected side effects – 90% involved pain at the site of injection or fever.
— Faisal Sultan (@fslsltn) May 18, 2021
Pakistan has reported 882,928 coronavirus cases so far, of whom 19,752 patients have died due to complications arising from the virus. Pakistan recorded a total of 2,566 new infections of coronavirus and 135 deaths in the past 24 hours, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) reported today (Tuesday).
The death toll from the pandemic has now reached 19,752 and the positivity ratio during the last 24 hours remained 8.61 per cent. According to NCOC, overall 882,928 cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the country of which 792,522 have recovered from it.
As many as 29,801 tests were conducted to diagnosis the deadly virus in the past 24 hours. The total number of tests currently stands at 12,510,568. Almost 4,443 patients are said to be critical.
Punjab reported the most 328,775 cases followed by Sindh with 299,913 infections, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa reported 127,224 infections, while Balochistan has registered 23,931 cases since the outbreak of the pandemic in the country.
The federal capital, according to NCOC, reported 79,371 cases and federally administered areas including Gilgit Baltistan (GB) and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) witnessed 5,428 and 18,286 respectively.
