ISLAMABAD: Vaccine alliance Gavi is going to supply Pakistan with COVID-19 vaccine doses to immunize for free 20 percent of its 225 million population, top officials confirmed on Monday.
Gavi is a public-private partnership that helps provide vaccines to developing countries. It has signed an agreement with Pakistan to provide 90 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, once it is ready. Two doses are needed to inoculate one person, each is estimated to cost about $10, according to the Ministry of National Health Services. The expense will be covered by Gavi.
“We will be securing the vaccine through the Gavi for 20 percent of our population for free,” Dr. Malik Mohammad Safi, director general at the Ministry of National Health Services, told Arab News.
“These vaccines are in the trial phase in different countries till November,” he said, adding that a safe vaccine against COVID-19 is expected to be available next year, after its approval by relevant regulatory agencies or the World Health Organization (WHO).
He added that if more doses will be needed after 45 million Pakistanis have been immunized, the government has a provision to purchase them later from Gavi.
Ninety-two low- and middle-income countries, including Pakistan, will be able to access the COVID-19 vaccines through the Gavi’s COVAX Advance Market Commitment.
“These countries will have limited resources to access future COVID-19 vaccines: it is our duty to support them. Without this support the majority of the world’s population will continue to suffer from this disease even after we’ve developed a tool to tackle it,” Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, chair of the Gavi board, said in a statement in July while approving the free vaccine mechanism.
The Gavi’s goal is to supply the countries with 2 billion vaccine doses by the end of 2021.
With a steady decline in COVID-19 cases and fatalities, Pakistan’s coronavirus situation is improving, but Dr. Safi said that the government’s health guidelines will remain in place until the disease is eradicated.
In the past 24 hours, Pakistan recorded seven coronavirus-related deaths and 488 new infections. The country’s official infection figures stood at 286,035 cases and 6,175 fatalities as of Monday evening.
“The daily infections are low, but it is still too early to declare victory,” Dr. Safi said.
GAVI vaccines alliance to supply 45 million Pakistanis with COVID-19 vaccine doses
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GAVI vaccines alliance to supply 45 million Pakistanis with COVID-19 vaccine doses
- Safe vaccine against COVID-19 is expected to be available next year, after approval by regulatory agencies or the World Health Organization
- Infection numbers and coronavirus-related deaths in Pakistan have been steadily declining since last month
Hundreds of migrants, including Pakistanis, land in Greece after search operation at sea
- Rescued migrants were taken to a temporary facility on Crete after reaching the port of Agia Galini
- Greece has made deportations of rejected asylum seekers a priority under its migration policy
ATHENS: Greece’s Coast Guard rescued about 540 migrants from a fishing boat off Europe’s southernmost island of Gavdos on Friday, one of the biggest groups to reach the country in recent months.
The migrants were found during a Greek search operation some 16 nautical miles (29.6 km) off Gavdos, a Coast Guard statement said. They are all well and are being taken to a temporary facility on the nearby island of Crete after reaching the port of Agia Galini, a Coast Guard official said, adding most of the migrants were men from Bangladesh, Egypt and Pakistan.
In a separate incident on Thursday, the EU’s border agency Frontex rescued 65 men and five women from two migrant boats in distress off Gavdos, the Greek Coast Guard said.
Greece was on the front line of a 2015-16 migration crisis when more than a million people from the Middle East and Africa landed on its shores before moving on to other European countries, mainly Germany.
Flows have ebbed since then, but both Crete and Gavdos — the two Mediterranean islands nearest to the African coast — have seen a steep rise in migrant boats, mainly from Libya, reaching their shores over the past year and deadly accidents remain common along that route.
Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Italy will be eligible for help in dealing with migratory pressures under a new EU mechanism when the bloc’s pact on migration and asylum enters into force in mid-2026.
The center-right government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said deportation of rejected asylum seekers will be a priority.
