Pakistan continues its struggle for a COVID-19 vaccine for its population of more than 220 million, It is likely to start local production of the Sputnik V vaccine in alliance with Russia in the upcoming months.
The Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi made the announcement, in a joint press conference along with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
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“Pakistan is looking forward to the Russian partnership for the local production of Sputnik V vaccine,” said Shah Mehmood Qureshi. Talking on the occasion, the Russian foreign minister said his government had supplied 50,000 doses to Pakistan and deliberate to supply more than 150,000 doses of vaccine in the coming days.
“We have provided 50,000 doses of anti-Covid vaccine to Pakistan and willful to give 150,000 more,” he announced.
Moreover, Lavrov coined the relationship between Russia and Pakistan countries as mutually advantageous and productive.
The Russian Foreign Minister also called on Prime Minister Imran Khan in Islamabad today, where both notables talked about bilateral ties and problems of regional and international importance.
The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) had approved the Russian vaccine for Covid-19, for emergency use in February.
Sputnik V could be given to a person of 18 and above it. The storage of the temperature of the vaccine must at minus-18 Celsius temperature, according to the sources at DRAP.
On March 18, it was told that a pharmaceutical company of Pakistan had received the first shipment of unofficially imported Russian-made Sputnik-V vaccine.
The Russian vaccine has a positive ratio of 91.6% and made in Russia in partnership with the government by Moscow’s Gamaleya Research Institute.
The health ministry has put the price of two anti-COVID does of the Russian vaccine at Rs 8,449. The packet having 4 doses of Sputnik-V is set at Rs 16,560 while 10 and 20 doses would be available at Rs40,555 and Rs 81,110.
