ISLAMABAD: Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, said on Wednesday the WHO and COVAX partners were committed to delivering coronavirus vaccines to all countries, including Pakistan, despite supply hiccups.
He said this in a tweet after a phone call with Pakistani health chief Dr. Faisal Sultan.
China’s Sinopharm and CansinoBio, Russia’s Sputnik-V and the British AstraZeneca vaccines are approved for emergency use in Pakistan, whose government has so far relied on vaccine donations from China. On Tuesday. Pakistan said it had bought more than 1 million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm and CanSino Biologics COVID-19 vaccines, its first purchase from any manufacturer.
Pakistan is aiming to vaccinate around 70 million people out of its 220 million population to reach sufficient community immunity. The country’s 100 million under-18s are not yet required to be vaccinated. With 45 million due to be covered by COVAX/GAVI provisions for poorer nations, Pakistan would still need to cater for around 25 million of the population.
“Thanks for a good call, @fslsltn Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI’s Special Assistant for National Health Services,” the WHO chief wrote on Twitter. “@WHO & the #COVAX partners are committed to delivering vaccines to all countries despite supply challenges. #VaccinEquity.”
Thanks for a good call, @fslsltn, Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI's Special Assistant for National Health Services. @WHO & the #COVAX partners are committed to delivering vaccines to all countries despite supply challenges. #VaccinEquity
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 23, 2021
He added:
I reassured Special Assistant @fslsltn that @WHO is working with #COVID19 vaccine manufacturers to speed up the Emergency Use Listing process, so that #COVAX can expand its portfolio and deliver doses quicker and in larger quantities. Together, for #VaccinEquity!
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) March 23, 2021
Pakistan, one of the first countries in the world to allow private imports of COVID-19 vaccines for sale on the open market, has received a batch of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine, and also expects to get a separate batch of CanSino this week for commercial sale. The government had set to set a price cap for privately imported shots.
