In a recent development, Pakistan’s National Institute of Health (NIH) has developed a homemade vaccine called PakVac. A Chinese vaccine company known by the name of CanSinoBio helped develop the vaccine after carrying out "rigorous quality control checks".
According to the Federal Minister for Planning and Development, Asad Umar, the first batch of homemade vaccines will be available to the public by the end of this month.
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The NIH executive, Director Major General Aamer Ikram, told the National Assembly last month that the NIH is currently in process of developing a single-dose Covid-19 vaccine
“We are going to make a single-dose vaccine for Covid-19,” he said“We conducted the clinical trial of Chinese Covid-19 vaccine CanSinoBio in Pakistan. The tests that were first conducted on 300 subjects are now administered in more than 150,000 laboratories,” - he further added.
The vaccine campaign started in Pakistan in February this year. It is estimated by government health officials that 70% of the population will be able to receive the Covid-19 vaccine by the end of this year.
The production of PakVac is bound to accelerate the rate of vaccinations. It will also significantly reduce the dependence on foreign countries for vaccines.
Currently, there are an estimated 908,576 active Covid-19 cases in Pakistan today. Meanwhile, 827,843 have recovered from COvid-19. Whereas, 20,465 have succumbed to the deadly disease.