Pakistan has started to locally produce China’s single-dose CanSinoBio COVID-19 vaccine with the imported raw material. The country hopes to prepare 100,000 shots before rolling out for packing by the end of this month.
The National Institute of Health Officials had earlier said that Pakistan would start the production of the vaccine in May. Meanwhile, the government of Pakistan is running a massive vaccination campaign with the shipments of vaccines received from China. Pakistan is expected to receive additional 1.2 million doses on Friday through COVAX Program.
“The raw material is enough to produce 120,000 doses of CanSino vaccines,” NIH authorities were quoted by Geo News as saying. “The [locally packaged] jabs will be available by the end of the current month.”
According to the reports, Chinese experts are present in Islamabad to help in the preparation of the vaccine, officials said. National Institute of Health has set up the production with the help of the Chinese Company.
Read more: Pakistan’s tardy vaccination drive and its reasons
CanSinoBio officials had trained the NIH personnel about how to produce the vaccine doses.
The government of Pakistan has been running the vaccination campaign across Pakistan since March. In the first phase, the country vaccinated its frontline health workers and elderly population, reaching May, the country has now opened a vaccination program for people in the middle age group, above 40.
On Tuesday, Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar informed that over 150,000 people were vaccinated in a day for the first time in Pakistan a day earlier on Monday.
“Yesterday, for the first time, the number of single-day vaccinations exceeded one and a half million. A total of more than 164,000 people were vaccinated,” Umar said in a tweet.
Monday was the first day vaccination started for people who are 40 or more all over Pakistan.
The local production of the vaccination will further speed-up the drive in Pakistan.