Pakistan on Saturday (today) approved the ‘emergency use’ AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to tackle COVID-19 outbreak in the country.
According to Dr Faisal Sultan – SAPM on Health, Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan (DRAP) has approved the emergency use of COVID-19 vaccine being produced by AstraZeneca – a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical company.
The vaccine is comparatively easy to use and a low cost solution to various other vaccine alternates being produced by pharmaceutical companies across the globe.
A local company has submitted relevant data to DRAP regarding AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The COVID-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca/Oxford was approved by British government in December 2020 last year.
AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine’s half-dose followed by a full-dose have proved to be 90% effective, as compared to two full-doses which have reported a 62% success rate.
Pakistan is experiencing a severe second COVID-19 wave with country’s total tally standing at 516,770 cases and 10,908 deaths so far.
A total of 472,099 people have successfully recovered from the virus so far and 2,334 are still in critical condition.
According to NCOC statistics, 2,432 COVID-19 cases and 45 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours.
