Parliamentary Secretary for Ministry of National Health Services Dr Nausheen Hamid Tuesday said that vaccine development was in its final stages where over 3 lakh frontline workers have been identified to carry out vaccination process in first phase which is set to begin from end of February.
Talking to media, she said government was under close contact with three international firms manufacturing the Covid-19 vaccine, adding, in the first phase, two categories of people would be administered the vaccine included the frontline healthcare workers and people over 65 years of age. A ‘safe and effective’ vaccine against novel coronavirus will soon become a reality in Pakistan, she assured. She said currently the expert panel was also looking at the data of Chinese vaccine manufacturers including Sinopharm, Cansino whose clinical trials were underway and Russian vaccine Sputnik V. She said potential COVID-19 vaccine development jointly produced by China and Russia has entered its final stages.—APP
