Coronavirus in Pakistan: Supply of 2.5m doses of AstraZeneca vaccine through COVAX delayed

• The first shipment of around 2.5 million doses British-Swedish vaccine AstraZeneca has been delayed.
  
• Pakistan is also expecting 9.5 million doses of Chinese vaccine Sinopharm by mid-March for Pakistani healthcare workers.
  
• Pakistan expects to get the first shipment of the AstraZeneca vaccine by mid-March.
  

KARACHI: The first shipment of British-Swedish vaccine AstraZeneca, which was supposed to be delivered to Pakistan by March 02, 2021, through COVAX, has been delayed due to unexplained reasons, The News reported on Tuesday.

“Earlier, it was planned to vaccinate the elderly population in Pakistan with AstraZeneca, which was supposed to be delivered by March through COVAX – a WHO initiative for an equal distribution of vaccine - but due to unexplained reasons, the first shipment of around 2.5 million doses has been delayed,” a health official told the publication.

In addition, Pakistan is expecting 9.5 million doses of Chinese vaccine Sinopharm by mid-March for healthcare workers.

The official added that the Chinese vaccine is the number one choice for vaccinating the elderly in Pakistan. He, however, 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 populations and the 1.2 million healthcare workers.

Read more: Pakistan's drug authority approves emergency use of AstraZeneca's coronavirus vaccine

Presently, a few hundred thousand doses of the Sinopharm vaccine were available with the federal government.

So far, only 250,000 frontline healthcare workers have received the vaccination and by the time the first dose of the vaccine is administered to most of the elderly, Pakistan would acquire several million doses of both Chinese Sinopharm and British-Swedish AstraZeneca vaccine.

Last week the registration board of the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) had also allowed vaccination of people above 60 years by Russian Vaccine Sputnik V if it was available privately.

The decision was taken on the recommendations of an expert committee on vaccines.