New Delhi (NVI): Pakistan may not have asked for Covid-19 vaccines from India, which has provided supplies to its neighbours and other needy nations, but it will be getting 16 million free doses of Indian-made Covid-19 vaccine- Covishield through Gavi, that would cover around 20 per cent of Pakistan’s population.
Pakistan has not formally asked for vaccines from India but it will be getting Indian-made vaccine through a third party.
Gavi, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation is a public-private global health partnership with the goal of increasing access to immunisation in poor countries.
Pakistan’s National Health Service (NHS) Secretary, Amir Ashraf Khawaja, made an announcement in this regard, while briefing the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) yesterday, reports The Dawn.
In response to a question by the PAC chairman Rana Tanveer Hussain, the secretary said Pakistan would get the first batch of Covishield, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine made by Serum Institute of India (SII) by the middle of March and the rest was expected to arrive in the country by June.
The NHS also said that the Pakistan has no plan to buy Covid vaccines anytime soon and that the government aims to tackle the pandemic through herd immunity and donated vaccines.
According to The Dawn, four vaccines —Sinophram (China), Oxford-AstraZeneca (UK), Sputnik-V (Russia) and Cansino Bio (China) have been registered in the Pakistan so far.
-ARK
