Pakistan’s locally-developed COVID-19 vaccine PakVac will be available for vaccination nationwide from Tuesday (today).
The government has on Monday announced that it has developed a homemade COVID-19 vaccine — PakVac — with the help of China’s Cansino Bio.
The country started its vaccination campaign in February after China began to offer doses to Pakistan.
Pakistan has now started the vaccination of people aged 30 and above. Over five million people have been vaccinated against Covid-19 in the country so far.
“Congratulations to the NIH (National Institute of Health) Pak team and its leadership for successful fill/finish (from concentrate) of the Cansino vaccine with the help of Cansino Bio Inc. China,” Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan wrote on his official Twitter handle.
Congratulations to the NIH Pak team and its leadership for successful fill/finish (from concentrate) of the Cansino vaccine with the help of Cansino Bio Inc. China. The product has passed the rigorous internal QA testing. An imp step to help in our vaccine supply line pic.twitter.com/hrkySTJxPX
— Faisal Sultan (@fslsltn) May 24, 2021
According to sources, concentrate and technical assistance to manufacture the PakVac vaccine were provided by China.
The Ministry of Health has directed the Health Department to prepare three million doses of PakVac. Manufacturing, packing and concentrate for PakVac vaccine are manufactured at the National Institutes of Health, sources added.
However, in the first phase a total of 124,000 CanSino shots have been developed, the sources at the Ministry of National Health said.