The first shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccine that was to be delivered to Pakistan by March 02, 2021, through COVAX, has been delayed for unspecific reasons.
A health official told reporters that the government had planned to vaccinate the elderly population with the AstraZeneca vaccine, which was supposed to be delivered by March through COVAX – a WHO initiative for an equal distribution of the vaccine.
However, due to unspecified reasons, the first shipment of 2.5 million doses has been delayed. Other than that, Pakistan is also expected to receive 9.5 million more doses of Chinese vaccine Sinopharm by mid-March for healthcare workers.
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The official said that the Chinese vaccine is Pakistan’s top choice for vaccinating the elderly in Pakistan. However, he claimed that Pakistan expects to get the first shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccine by mid-March.
By that time 9.5 million doses of the Chinese vaccine would also be available, providing enough doses to vaccinate around 8.5 million elderly and the 1.2 million healthcare workers.
The official revealed that currently, the federal government is left with only a few hundred thousand doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.
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As per the official statistics, so far, only 250,000 frontline healthcare workers have been vaccinated and by the time the first dose of the vaccine is administered to most of the elderly, Pakistan would acquire several million more doses of both Chinese Sinopharm and AstraZeneca vaccine.
In a separate development, the Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan (DRAP) had also allowed vaccination of people above 60 years by Russian vaccine Sputnik V depending on its availability for private use.
