ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations has sought “effective action” against fake COVID-19 vaccines, calling on the global community to work together against the production and distribution of medical products.
“In the context of COVID-19, there is a need for effective action against falsified and fake medical products (such as vaccines) and to strengthen international cooperation in this regard,” Ambassador Munir Akram said at the 14th Crime Congress hosted by UN.
Akram, who is also the president of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), added that this year, the Congress’ focus was on “advancing crime prevention, criminal justice and the rule of law: toward the achievement of the 2030 Agenda”, as the COVID-19 pandemic had had a “significant” impact on transnational organized crime.
“There is a compelling case for enhanced international action to combat and dismantle networks and platforms that perpetrate these crimes and undermine progress toward 2030 Agenda,” he said.
Akram’s call for action came against the backdrop of a spike in COVID-19 cases across Pakistan in recent days.
To curb the spread of the disease, Pakistan will launch a nationwide vaccination drive on Wednesday to inoculate all citizens above 60 years of age, Planning Minister Asad Umar tweeted on Sunday.
In the first phase of the campaign, which was initiated in February, the South Asian country of 220 million aimed to vaccinate health workers with 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine donated by China.
So far, more than 230,000 frontline workers have received the jab.
This is in addition to 5.6 million doses of three other coronavirus vaccines, which are expected to be delivered by March-end.
Pakistan has approved four vaccines for emergency use – China’s Sinopharm and CanSinoBIO, the Oxford AstraZeneca, and Russia’s Sputnik V.
As of Monday, 1,592 cases of COVID-19 were recorded in the past 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 592,100 and 13,227 deaths, according to government data.