In the last 24 hours, 2,726 new cases of covid-19 have been detected throughout Pakistan. The epidemic claimed the lives of 75 more individuals, bringing the total number of people that have died to 20,540.
Pakistan has announced that the registration process for the Covid-19 vaccine for people aged 19 and up will begin today. Pakistan will now be able to vaccinate its entire population that has been approved for vaccination as a result of this development.
The decision was reached during a meeting of the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) on Wednesday, which was chaired by Minister of Planning and Development Asad Umar.
“So now registration will be open for the entire national population which is approved by health experts for covid vaccination,” Umar tweeted.
Previously, the government had decided to allow Pakistanis over the age of 18 who had obtained a work visa or were already working in another country to be vaccinated. They will be required to present their work visa or passport to vaccination staff, who will examine the documents before administering the vaccine.
Over 5,843,000 people in Pakistan have been vaccinated against the novel virus. By the end of this year, the government plans to vaccinate 70 million people against Covid-19.
The National Institute of Health (NIH) is proposing to revert to using the old name for the Chinese single-dose coronavirus vaccine it produces i.e. CanSino Bio.
At the National Institutes of Health, 120,000 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine have been prepared, with a launch ceremony scheduled for the end of May. The NIH used PakVac for the first shipment of 500 doses, although it is now contemplating using the term CanSino Bio for the remaining vaccine shipments.
“There has been a change of mind and the vaccine would be called CanSino Bio as the Chinese are sensitive about the names of their products,” an official of the NIH was quoted as saying on the Dawn.com website.
The vaccine developed at the NIH with CanSino Biologics in China has passed internal quality assurance monitoring.
The NIH would be able to deliver three million doses each month, eliminating Pakistan’s reliance on other countries for the Covid-19 vaccine dramatically.
