Cabinet committee decides to buy COVID-19 vaccine from China: Fawad

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – Minister for Science Fawad Chaudhry announced that the cabinet committee has decided to buy coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine from China.

The minister took his twitter and said that the cabinet committee decided to buy COVID-19 vaccine from Chinese company Sinopharm. "Initially 1.2 million doses of the vaccine will be imported in first quarter of 2021 and frontline workers will be inoculated for free," he added.

Fawad Chaudhry further maintained that private is sector is also allowed to import internationally approved coronavirus vaccines.

کابینہ کمیٹی نے فیصلہ کیا ہے کہ ابتدائ طور پر چین کی کمپنی سائنوفارم سے ویکسین کی بارہ لاکھ Doses خریدی جائیں گی جو 2021 کی پہلی سہ ماہی میں فرنٹ لائن ورکرز کو مفت مہیا کی جائیں گی، پرائیویٹ سیکٹر اگر کوئ اور بینالاقوامی طور پر منظور شدہ ویکسین امپورٹ کرنا چاہےتو وہ بھی کرسکتا ہے

— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) December 31, 2020

Vaccine ‘79% effective’

Phase 3 trials of a Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine found it was 79 per cent effective, the Chinese pharma giant said Wednesday, lower than rival jabs developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna but a potential breakthrough in the battle to stem the pandemic in Asia.

China has been racing against the West to develop its own Covid-19 vaccines, with five already in large-scale Phase 3 clinical trials.