In one area, powerful storm winds toppled a train from its tracks, the officials said
americas5 hours ago
AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine has been approved for emergency use in Pakistan, the health minister said on Saturday, making it the first coronavirus vaccine to get the green light for use in the country.
Pakistan, which is seeing rising numbers of coronavirus infections, said its vaccines would be procured from multiple sources.
“DRAP granted emergency use authorisation to AstraZeneca’s COVID vaccine,” the health minister, Faisal Sultan, told Reuters.
Approval has been given to get more than a million doses of Sinopharm’s vaccine from China, he said.
“We are in the process to obtain Western origin and other vaccines both via bilateral purchase agreements as well as via the COVAX facility,” he said.
The Chinese vaccine is awaiting approval from the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP), which has received and reviewed its data.
Pakistan is speaking to a number of vaccine makers, and Sultan said the country could get “in the range of tens of millions” of vaccine doses under an agreement with China’s CanSinoBio.
The vaccine company’s Ad5-nCoV COVID-19 candidate is nearing completion of Phase III clinical trials in Pakistan.
Efficacy is a key factor, said Sultan. “We have and are watching the evolving stories around efficacy of a number of vaccines.”
Sultan said preliminary results of the Cansino may come in by mid-February. He added that Pakistan was considering to engage with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine.
Pakistan reported 2,432 new coronavirus infections and 45 deaths on Friday, taking the total number of cases to more than 516,000 and deaths close to 11,000.
“Our aim is that the bulk of the population will be covered free,” the minister said, adding that private sectors could also be allowed once supply was available to an authorized company.
Sultan added that Pakistan had adequate cold chain facilities for most kinds of vaccines.
In one area, powerful storm winds toppled a train from its tracks, the officials said
americas5 hours ago
Temperatures will rise gradually throughout the day, the Met department said
weather6 hours ago
Arabella was recently recognised with a gold medal at the first edition of the Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed Environmental Awards
uae8 hours ago
Post the Covid pandemic, the Emirates has emerged as one of the most popular spots for destination weddings
uae8 hours ago
It bears the name 'Dubai' in Arabic and dates back to the 1960s
uae8 hours ago
The quake occurred at 3.03am local time
uae8 hours ago
Debutant and |Dubai amateur Oscar Craig makes the cut on a tough day dominated by warm winds
sports13 hours ago
In a packed leaderboard the tied second place was decided on a card countback with the Emirates Golf Federation 2 Team prevailing
golf13 hours ago