Pakistan expects to receive 19 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines by the first half of the ongoing year, said SAPM Faisal Sultan.
On Monday, Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination Dr Faisal Sultan said that the country is going to receive 19 million Covid vaccine doses by June.
Dr Sultan said while addressing a press conference at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) this afternoon said, “We expect to receive 19 million doses of Covid vaccines by the first half of the current year.”
Moreover, the SAPM stated that the government has signed contracts to receive 30 million doses of the vaccines, adding that the process will continue in phases. “90 percent of the vaccines are to be bought,” he said by adding that dispersing the impression that the government was exclusively relying on donations to receive the jabs.
He further stated that about 100 million of the population was eligible to receive the jabs, excluding those below the age of 18 years. “We will make modifications if there are any scientific changes [internationally regarding the age factor].”
Dr Faisal said that, “We plan to vaccinate 70 million people across the country by year end.” He added, “The efforts to acquire vaccinations are ongoing but the biggest defence against Covid is adherence to the SOPs.”
Mentioning the global shortage of vaccines, the SAPM said that the country is still succeeding in obtaining the vaccines and vaccinating its population.
Read more: Pakistan to locally produce China’s CanSino COVID-19 vaccine
Dr Faisal stated that Pakistan is set to start the local filling of the CanSino vaccines. “According to the agreement, we will carry out local filling of three million doses in the country every month.”
“The move will help lessen the country’s reliance on other countries for vaccine procurement.” he said.
