Observer Report
Islamabad
The government is in close liaison with leading Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers, including those from China, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) was informed on Wednesday.
During a daily briefing on the coronavirus situation, health officials told the NCOC that they are regularly reviewing developments, including data from phase 3 trials of experimental vaccines.
These steps will lead to a final decision about early availability of the vaccine for Pakistan, they added.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services, Dr Faisal Sultan, said a vaccine for Covid-19 will be available by March next year.
The government is in talks with three vaccine-makers, the SAPM confirmed on Wednesday. The vaccine will first be administered to frontline health workers and people over 60 years.
The National Immunization Management System will be a two-way communication system that will run in collaboration with the Interior and Information Technology ministries, sources at the Ministry of National Health Services said.
The central database of the modern mechanism will be established at NADRA, according to the sources. The citizens of various age groups will be registered in the database of NADRA and vaccination schedule of different age groups will be prepared in accordance with the database said.
The death rate in Pakistan is not going down ever since the second wave of coronavirus pandemic started affecting the country as another 83 people died of the infection during the past 24 hours.
Unfortunately, Punjab again had the biggest share in these latest deaths with 44 patients losing their lives. It was followed by 27 in Sindh, 10 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and one each in Azad Kashmir and Islamabad, raising the death toll to 9,557. Meanwhile, the region-wise distribution of the reported coronavirus cases is given as: Sindh 206,489, Punjab 133,179, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 55,811, Islamabad 36,483, Balochistan 17,980, Azad Kashmir 8,040 and Gilgit-Baltistan 4,832.
