KARACHI: A committee of experts formed by the government of Pakistan is engaged with eight manufacturers of the world for the purchase of the COVID-19 vaccine and it would be a big achievement for the authorities if they manage to get the vaccine for half a million frontline workers in the country in the first quarter of next year.
The COVID-19 vaccine is unlikely to be available for 90 per cent of people in the world including Pakistan in the first six months of 2021 due to issues related to its availability as more than half of the vaccine production stocks have already been purchased by the high income countries. The focus of authorities in Pakistan would be to vaccinate half a million frontline healthcare workers in the first quarter and the remaining healthcare workers and people above 60 years of age in the next 2nd quarter.
“In the first half of the next year, only top priority people are expected to get the COVID-19 vaccine in Pakistan, who include half a million frontline healthcare workers, followed by all the healthcare workers and people above 60 years of age. As 50 to 60 per cent vaccine production stocks have already been sold to higher income countries, the availability of vaccine in the private sector is also very unlikely in Pakistan before the second half of the next year,” said Dr Asad Hafeez, vice chancellor of Health Services Academy, Islamabad, while speaking at an online training workshop on Monday.
Around 25 leading health journalists from print and electronic media organizations of Pakistan attended the online training workshop titled “COVID-19: Understanding and Reporting the Pandemic”. It was organized by Dr Zafar Mirza, former special assistant to Prime Minister on Health, in collaboration with Ministry of National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination and Trust for Democratic Education and Accountability (TDEA).
The workshop was addressed by SAPM Dr Faisal Sultan, Dr Zafar Mirza, Dr Asad Hafeez, NHS, TDEA and National Emergency Operation Centre (NEOC) officials. Dr Asad Hafeez, who has also served as director general Health, maintained that there are 11 companies which are conducting Phase-3 clinical trials but not a single vaccine has yet been approved by authorities in the world, saying only emergency use authorization has been granted to these companies in view of their data submitted by them after Phase-3 clinical trials.
To a query, Dr Asad Hafeez said the messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna are not suitable for Pakistan due to their storage issues and cold chain management as Pakistan already has a system of storing and transporting vaccines at 2-8 degrees Celsius but added that authorities are also in contact with these companies for the procurement of their vaccines if it becomes inevitable.
He said the government is going to start a dialogue with the political leadership in the country over the procurement of the vaccine in next two three days, in which the health ministers of all the four provinces would be taken on board. He said the role of media would be very important in highlighting the role of the vaccine in prevention as anti-vaxers lobby, which opposes use of vaccines, is already active and spreading conspiracy theories against the COVID-19 vaccine.
Dr Faisal Sultan while speaking at the inaugural session said COVID-19 cases, positivity and hospitalization of critically-sick patients has started rising in the second wave and warned that like all over the world, the next two weeks of the current month and the month of January would be very critical in terms of COVID-19’s spread in Pakistan. He said the positivity of cases, which touched 22 per cent during the first wave, had dropped to 2 per cent nationally in October this year but now it is constantly on the rise and reached 7.5 per cent. He urged health journalists and media to play its role in a successful national effort to control the second wave of COVID-19 in Pakistan.
Dr Zafar Mirza said the online training workshop has been arranged by him in collaboration with the government and the NGO TDEA-FAFEN for the capacity building of health journalists of the country who are reporting on COVID-19 these days. It aimed at getting them connected with the most important people dealing with the pandemic in Pakistan. He said the role of health journalists is very important these days in creating awareness about the pandemic as well as other diseases, which are largely being ignored due to the pandemic and added that more such trainings would be held to help health journalists and promote health journalism in the country.
Other experts including National Surveillance Coordinator Dr Shafiq-ur-Rehman from NEOC Islamabad, Dr Usman Mushtaq and Shahid Fiaz, the CEO of TDEA, also spoke.