ISLAMABAD: Amid reports pouring in from various parts of the world about start of Covid-19 vaccinations, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Wednesday announced that the government was in close liaison with the world’s leading vaccine manufacturers, including those in China, and would soon make a decision about its availability in the country at the earliest.

In a statement, the NCOC said the government was regularly reviewing developments taking place around the globe, including data from phase 3 trials.

“These steps will lead to a final decision about early availability of the vaccine in Pakistan,” it said on the day the country recorded 2,142 new Covid-19 cases with 84 deaths, taking the overall death toll to 9,558. There were 37,904 active Covid cases in the country on Wednesday.

University of Health Sciences Vice Chancellor and Scientific Task Force on Covid-19 member Dr Javed Akram disclosed that 15,000 people, 80 per cent of the total volunteers, had been administered Chinese vaccine expressing the hope that the trial would end in December.

Govt in close liaison with world’s leading manufacturers

In Pakistan, the clinical trial of the Chinese vaccine began in September with the initial sample size of 10,000 volunteers. However, later the number was enhanced to 18,000.

The vaccine is ribonucleic acid based and will generate antibodies against the spikes as a result of which the virus will not be able to attach itself to lungs.

“Though some of the volunteers who were administered Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine were hospitalised, not a single incident has occurred with the Chinese vaccine in Pakistan. Once the trial is completed, the process of vaccine registration will start. We will not waste a single minute as the country is losing almost 100 people’s lives daily because of the pandemic,” he had stated.

Meanwhile, the data released by the NCOC shows that over the last 24 hours, most deaths occurred in Punjab, followed by Sindh. As many as 39 deaths were reported from various parts of Punjab, followed by 21 in Sindh and 10 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Of 84 deaths over the last 24 hours, according to the NCOC, 47 patients died on ventilators.

Published in Dawn, December 24th, 2020