Pakistan to book coronavirus vaccine in advance

Amid the alarming spread of coronavirus and the encouraging news about the successful ongoing process of vaccines’ development in the world, Prime Minister Imran Khan has given the go-ahead to book consignments of the vaccine in advance, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Tuesday.

Confirming the reports, Dr Nausheen Hamid – who is the parliamentary secretary for the health ministry – said contacts had been made with two of the vaccine producers for advance booking.

Expressing her confidence that Pakistan would be able to achieve the goal, she said the government was taking steps to ensure the availability of the possible vaccine.

In this connection, sources say the proposal for this move was presented by the health ministry to the prime minister last month. 

According to the ministry, the coronavirus vaccine should be booked for 10 million people with an allocation of $100 million for the purpose. The first phase, it is said, will cover the health workers and old citizens.

The news came as all the countries have been making efforts for vaccine availability for their citizens as soon as the final product produced by different pharmaceutical giants are approved by global health authorities.

Dozens of pharmaceutical giants and research institutes are currently working on developing vaccines to fight the coronavirus which has crippled the entire globe.     

On Monday, an important breakthrough was announced by Moderna – a US biotechnology company – which said early data showed that a new anti-coronavirus vaccine was nearly 95 percent effective.

This vaccine is to be administered in two doses with a gap of four weeks and requires storage at -20 degrees Celsius with a life of six months.

It is a very reassuring sign as the vaccine being developed by Pfizer has stated to have 90 percent effectiveness. But the biggest problem with Pfizer’s product is storage. Its vaccine will have to be stored at -75 degree Celsius which would be near impossible task for the poor and developing nations.

Just like Moderna, the vaccine developed by Pfizer requires two injections but with a gap of three weeks.