ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s health chief, Dr. Faisal Sultan, has called on Pakistanis to continue getting coronavirus shots as speculation is rising in the country whether vaccines protect against new COVID-19 variants.
Last week, the Aga Khan University Hospital in Karachi announced that in a genomic study of coronavirus samples it had detected highly infectious new variants of the coronavirus that emerged in Brazil and South Africa.
While the announcement has prompted questions whether the vaccines used in Pakistan are effective against mutated COVID-19 strains, Dr. Sultan said they still offer protection from COVID-19 hospitalization and complications.
“Keeping in view the detection of new COVID-19 variants in Pakistan and raising questions on the effectiveness of vaccine process, I advise the people to go for vaccination against the virus to avoid facing more complications and hospitalization,” he said in a video statement on Saturday evening.
“It’s important to remember that every virus mutates and the coronavirus is not unique for doing so. We’re learning more about variants but in the meantime, everyone who is eligible should get vaccinated right away without hesitation.”
Pakistan is speeding up its vaccination drive, relying mostly on Chinese shots.
Dr. Sultan said last week that the country had purchased 13 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine doses from China’s Sinopharm, CanSinoBio and Sinovac.
The purchased vaccine is expected to begin arriving in May with 6.7 million doses and the rest in June.
Over 2.1 million vaccine doses have been administered so far in the South Asian nation of 220 million.
Coronavirus cases have been rising steadily in Pakistan, which recorded 4,414 new cases and 113 virus-related deaths on Sunday.
At least 5,448 COVID-19 patients are in critical condition — the highest number since the beginning of the pandemic in February last year.
