China to ‘gift’ half a million vaccine doses to Pakistan: Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Days after the Drug Regulatory Authority Pakistan (DRAP) approved the Chinese Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Thursday announced Beijing will provide half a million doses by January 31.

Speaking to reporters following a telephone call with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, Qureshi said Beijing offered Islamabad to “immediately” airlift the shots.

Qureshi said he held a detailed conversation with Yi during which he “discussed Pakistan’s requirements,” after Prime Minister Imran Khan had directed him to increase interaction with Beijing “considering the sensitivity of the [coronavirus] situation”.

“I want to give the nation the good news that China has promised to immediately provide 500,000 doses of vaccine to Pakistan by January 31,” he said.

“They [China] have said you can send your airplane and immediately airlift this drug.”

The first doses, he said, would be provided to Pakistan under “grant assistance,” and would not require any payment.

While Qureshi did not specify which vaccine he was referring to, it is likely to be Sinopharm, which was granted approval earlier this week.

“I also informed [Yi] that our needs are far greater than [those 0.5 million doses] … we need 1.1 million doses [for frontline workers] in the first phase,” he said. At this, Yi assured Qureshi this could also be accomplished by the end of February.

In December, the federal cabinet approved $250 million in funding to buy coronavirus vaccines, initially to cover the most vulnerable 5 per cent of the population, including the frontline health workers.

Meanwhile, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) announced to have opened registrations for frontline healthcare workers who are set to receive the first doses of the vaccine.

Staff in both public and private health facilities will be vaccinated, NCOC announced on its website and gave an elaborate definition for who qualified as a healthcare worker.

Under vaccine protocol, the vaccination of frontline healthcare workers will be followed by remaining healthcare workers and people over 65 in the second phase, and the general public in the third phase.

According to Qureshi, Yi had stressed that China had committed to “global public good” in responding to the pandemic. “Keeping in mind our all-weather friendship, the minister assured us that China’s cooperation with Pakistan would continue [during the vaccine phase],” he said.

He also noted that he had discussed the CanSino vaccine with Yi and floated the possibility of Islamabad manufacturing it indigenously. “He was very amenable to the suggestion,” Qureshi added.

Last week, Dr. Faisal Sultan, state minister for health, said Pakistan has been engaging with a number of vaccine makers, adding the country could get “in the range of tens of millions” of vaccine doses under an agreement with Cansino.

The company’s Ad5-nCoV coronavirus candidate is nearing completion of Phase III clinical trials in Pakistan. The preliminary results of the CanSino vaccine may come in by mid-February, Dr Sultan had said.

In addition to Sinopharm, DRAP has also approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine for emergency use.

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