Pakistan All Set To Roll Out Locally-Made ‘PakVac’ COVID-19 Vaccine

Pakistan’s National Institute of Health (NIH) announced on Monday that it has developed a homemade vaccine ‘PakVac’ with the help of a Chinese vaccine company CanSinoBio. The government had signed an agreement with China for a total of three million CanSino doses.

The vaccine has been prepared after thorough quality control checks and meets the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) standards. According to Federal Parliamentary Health Secretary, Dr. Nausheen Hamid, the formulation and packaging of the ‘PakVac’ vaccine began in Pakistan on May 7 and currently, a total of 160,000 vaccine dose concentrates are available in the country.

Pakistan has started production of China’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine CanSino at National Institute of Health (NIH) plant. This facility will produce 3 million doses/month and as a result, significantly reduce Pakistan’s dependence on importing vaccine from other countries. pic.twitter.com/ejXhq9QsUG

— Government of Pakistan (@GovtofPakistan) May 25, 2021

Congratulations to the NIH Pak team and its leadership for successful fill/finish (from concentrate) of the Cansino vaccine with the help of Cansino Bio Inc. China. The product has passed the rigorous internal QA testing. An imp step to help in our vaccine supply line pic.twitter.com/hrkySTJxPX

— Faisal Sultan (@fslsltn) May 24, 2021

According to Federal Planning Minister, Asad Umar, the Cansino shot had an efficacy of 74.8% at preventing COVID-19 cases and 100% for preventing severe disease.

After the announcement of the ‘PakVac’ Covid-19 vaccine, a total of 267,953 people were vaccinated over the past 24 hours. People are urged to register for the vaccine and visit the vaccination center for their immunization as soon as possible.

Hopefully, with the production of the homemade vaccine, Pakistan’s dependence on other countries for the Covid-19 vaccine will significantly reduce.