National
April 30, 2021
KARACHI: Pakistan has so far inoculated only two million of its population with mix and match of mostly Chinese and a few thousand doses of Russian Sputnik V vaccine, which is less than one percent of the entire population of 220 million, officials said.
They however added that the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has allowed five vaccines including three Chinese, one Russian and a European for emergency inoculation of its adult population. Of the five, four vaccines – three Chinese and one Russian, have been mixed and matched to vaccinate two million people including healthcare workers, elderly and some other high risk groups. One of the vaccines allowed for emergency use, Covishield AstraZeneca has yet not been received by the authorities in Pakistan, officials of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination (NHS,R&C) told The News.
The third wave and the vaccination emergency Ikram Sehgal
Covid-19 has struck Pakistan with a third wave and has the country head-locked in a vice-like grip. This has come as a shock to many. For unlike Europe and the rest of the world, including neighbouring India, where the virus had been hurtling along at accelerated speed, Pakistan had so far been doing quite well. Now the number of infections is rising rapidly and it seems that these cannot be stopped by routine SOPs and appeals to common sense. A new and complete lockdown is on the cards, threatening more hardship for the poor and the economy at large. The Army has been called in by all the provinces and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT). As Prime Minister Imran Khan rightly said: “we should and would not endanger human lives to safe the economy.”
National
April 30, 2021
KARACHI: Pakistan has so far inoculated only two million of its population with mix and match of mostly Chinese and a few thousand doses of Russian Sputnik V vaccine, which is less than one percent of the entire population of 220 million, officials said. They however added that the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has allowed five vaccines including three Chinese, one Russian and a European for emergency inoculation of its adult population.
Of the five, four vaccines – three Chinese and one Russian, have been mixed and matched to vaccinate two million people including healthcare workers, elderly and some other high risk groups.
PAEC develops first ICU ventilator
Islamabad
April 29, 2021
Islamabad : Taking a leap towards self-reliance in designing and manufacturing of life-saving equipment, the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) Wednesday announced having indigenously developed its own Intensive Care Unit (ICU) ventilator named ‘i-LIVE.’
The ventilator has been developed by a PAEC team of scientists and engineers, applying all essential quality standards and regulatory requirements, with doctors from PAEC Hospital, Islamabad, providing valuable input during its development process.
The spokesperson of PAEC Shahid Riaz Khan told the media that the ventilator has been awarded formal approval, licensing and registration by the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP). After this award of approval from DRAP, ‘i-LIVE’ will be manufactured and supplied by PAEC to meet the critical needs of hospitals. The exercise opens new avenues for multidisciplinary experts from various fields like soft
Pakistan is set to start the local production of CanSinoBIO’s COVID-19 vaccine from next month, senior officials at the National Institute of Health (NIH) have confirmed.
According to details, while the NIH has made all the necessary arrangements to commence the domestic manufacturing of the vaccine, the raw material for the production of CanSinoBIO’s vaccine will reach Pakistan in early May.
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Chinese healthcare experts are currently in Pakistan as well to assist NIH researchers in manufacturing the CanSinoBIO’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine.
Known as Ad5-nCoV, CanSinoBIO developed the Coronavirus vaccine in collaboration with the Beijing Institute of Biotechnology and tested it in large-scale phase-III clinical trials that were held in five countries, including Pakistan, in which more than 40,000 volunteers participated.