Former cricketer Sarfraz Nawaz says coronavirus vaccine is safe, urges everyone to get it to help control virus spread
Legendary Pakistani cricketers Zaheer Abbas and Sarfraz Nawaz have gotten the the coronavirus vaccination from the United Kingdom.
Nawaz said the vaccine is safe and people should get it done as it will help control the disease.
Earlier this week, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan had said Pakistan will receive its first batch of the coronavirus vaccine directly from manufacturers, as well as the global platform of COVAX, in the first quarter of the year.
The government will be ordering doses from more than one international supplier within this quarter, Dr Sultan told Geo.tv.
Read more: Pakistan to get first coronavirus vaccine doses 'within weeks': Dr Faisal Sultan
Pakistan will only procure vaccines that have been approved by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) “after evaluation of its quality vis a vis efficacy data", Dr. Sultan explained.
Last week, the DRAP approved for emergency use authorisation two COVID-19 vaccines – the Chinese manufactured Sinopharm, and the Oxford-AstraZeneca. In the near future, the doctor added, more vaccines will also be given a go-ahead by the regulatory body.
Earlier, a health official had told Geo.tv, on the condition of anonymity, that one other vaccine being examined by DRAP at the moment is the Ad5-nCoV, developed by a Chinese pharmaceutical firm, which underwent trials in Pakistan recently.
Besides procuring the drug directly, Pakistan will also receive its first tranche of vaccines from COVAX, a World Health Organisation-led initiative that aims to provide COVID-19 vaccines to poor countries, in the first quarter of the year.
Read more: Pakistan crosses 11,000 COVID-19 deaths as two vaccines get approved for emergency use
Pakistan is already putting modalities in place to receive and distribute the vaccine.
“All necessary preparations are being done to start a mass inoculation campaign within Q1,” Dr Sultan said, “This includes infrastructure, framework, training and capacity.”
In the first phase, the vaccine will only be administered to healthcare workers dealing directly with coronavirus infected and those over the age of 65 years.