ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has authorized the emergency use of third Chinese coronavirus vaccine despite its "low efficacy" during the trial stage, reported the local media on Friday.
According to an article in The News International, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) granted permission to use CoronaVac during a recent meeting of its registration board on Thursday.
The newspaper reported that this is the fifth COVID-19 vaccine — and the third one from China — which can now be used in Pakistan to fight the pandemic.
The country has so far relied on China's Sinopharm and Russia's Sputnik V vaccines to immunize its citizens.
Quoting a DRAP official, The News said that "an expert committee had recommended emergency use authorization for CoronaVac vaccine, although its data was not published and its overall efficacy was around 56 percent."
The official further told the newspaper that CoronaVac had also been used in Turkey and Indonesia where its effectiveness was said to be 91.25 and 85.3 percent, respectively.
Pakistan has witnessed a significant surge in COVID-19 cases in recent months. The country reported 5,312 new cases of the viral infection and 105 related deaths in the last 24 hours.
The government recently closed education institutes in several districts across the country due to high positivity ratios and urged people to take necessary healthcare precautions to prevent further spread of the disease.