Islamabad: Pakistan has decided to buy 1.1 million doses of Covid-19 Vaccine developed by Sinopharm, a Chinese state-owned company.
After 2,475 new cases of Covid-19 came to light in the country, the total number of infected people has increased to 4,79,715 so far. China on Thursday conditionally approved the use of its first home-grown vaccine, Covid-19, by its Synopharm company.
A day earlier, Sinopharm had said that its vaccine had been effective in the interim results of the third phase of clinical trials at 79.34 percent and the antibody-positive conversion rate at 99.52 percent.
The decision to buy the vaccine was taken at a special cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the National Health Services Ministry said. However, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan has not yet allowed the emergency use of the vaccine. Once approved, it will be imposed on all front-line health workers in the first quarter of 2021. Meanwhile, the death toll in Pakistan has risen to 10,105 from Covid-19 with 58 more people killed.
