Pakistan will receive 45 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India in March, Federal Secretary National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination Aamir Ashraf Khawaja said in a meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday.
He said that the country was going to receive 45 million Indian manufactured doses of COVID-19 during the current month
The government will receive these vaccines through Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance. Gavi had signed an agreement regarding the provision of vaccines with Pakistan in September 2020.
The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is being manufactured locally by the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer, and being imported to multiple countries.
The Secretary added that earlier it was expected that the vaccines would arrive from Gavi in the first week of March, however it had been a little delayed and was now expected to arrive within the next few weeks.
He also said that no import approval had been given so far to any private lab for the vaccine, as nobody had applied to the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) yet.
