ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has claimed that the locally-made CanSino vaccine will be available for use by the end of this month (May).
On a social media website Twitter, the head of the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC)said that the first batch of bulk CanSino vaccine was being processed at the National Institute of Health plant set up for this purpose last month.
He said a specially trained team was working on it. “Will inshallah be available for use by end of May after going through rigorous quality control checks,” the minister claimed.
On April 28, the official from the National Institute of Health (NIH) had revealed Pakistan would prepare a Chinese coronavirus vaccine locally from the next month.
The vaccine prepared by CanSino Bio would be made locally at the beginning of May, the official said. The raw material for the vaccine would be provided by the Chinese company. Pakistan had procured special equipment and a team of CanSino Bio training Pakistani manpower at the NIH.
Earlier, Asad Umar had said the daily vaccinations against COVID-19 surpassed the 200,000 marks the previous day, as the vaccine supplies gradually increase across the country.
Asad Umar said registration for vaccination has also gathered pace as the number of people signing up for vaccination has surpassed five million figures. He urged people aged 40 years and above to get themselves registered at the earliest. He also called for adhering to coronavirus measures to control the virus.
On Monday, a record 164,000 people got inoculated across the country. It was also the first day when people over 40 years were inoculated for the first time.
Asad Umar said that the next few weeks are critical for the country in its battle against the pandemic. He urged people to follow coronavirus-related guidelines to avoid the spread of the disease.
He announced that significant improvement has been seen in compliance with guidelines “since the stronger enforcement measures including military deployment took place” last month.
“National average compliance has doubled from 34% on 25th [April] to 68% on 3rd May. Need to sustain and build on this compliance level especially till Eid-ul Fitr],” he said.
