Islamabad: Pakistan said on Thursday that it would allow COVID-19 vaccine doses to be sold commercially to patients, starting with the vaccine developed in China by CanSino Biologics. The Russian Sputnik V vaccine will also be sold, officials said.
The policy will allow affluent Pakistanis to pay to get the shots at large private hospitals whenever they want, while most people wait their turn for a state-supplied vaccination.
“The government will provide free vaccine to 98 per cent of the people,” Fawad Chaudhry, federal minister for science and technology, said Thursday after a meeting of the federal Cabinet in Islamabad. “But 2 per cent of the people who don’t want to wait in a line, we have decided to allow the sale of private vaccine.”