Pakistan on Friday (toady) received its first batch of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine under World Health Organization’s (WHO) ‘COVAX’ initiative.
UNICEF Pakistan took to social media to announce the arrival of first shipment of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to Pakistan comprising of 100,000 doses.
The shipment of Pfizer COVID19 vaccines is the second consignment of vaccines received by Pakistan via COVAX program, read the statement issued by UNICEF Pakistan.
The development comes as Pakistan received its first shipment of Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines earlier this month under the COVAX initiative.
The shipment of @pfizer #COVID19 vaccines is the second consignment of vaccines received by Pakistan via #COVAX. Earlier this month, @UNICEF had led the efforts to procure and deliver more than 1 million doses of #AstraZenaca vaccine to @GovtofPakistan on behalf of #COVAX. pic.twitter.com/k3CNvP73XU
— UNICEF Pakistan (@UNICEF_Pakistan) May 28, 2021
COVAX is a global vaccine-sharing program by the World Health Organisation, the Gavi vaccine alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). The program intends to supply a total of 17.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Pakistan.
Currently, Pakistan is utilizing a total of six COVID-19 vaccines namely Sinopharm, CansinoBio, Sputnik V, Oxford AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Sinovac to carryout nation-wide inoculation drive against the novel virus.
Meanwhile, Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) is said to have approved the use of locally made ‘PakVac’ COVID-19 vaccine.
The single-dose PakVac is a license produced domestic version of CaninoBio COVID-19 vaccine of China and is being manufactured by National Institute of Health (NIH) Islamabad.
Pakistan has administered 6.7 million vaccine doses with supplies from three Chinese companies — Sinopharm, Sinovac and CanSinbio — and the Oxford-AstraZeneca shots, whereas country’s private sector has imported nearly 50,000 doses of Russia’s Sputnik-V vaccine.
