Pakistan allows private sector to procure vaccine

Ag Agencies

ISLAMABAD: The government has allowed the private sector to purchase a Covid-19 vaccine, a health ministry official said, as 73 more people succumbed to the coronavirus in Pakistan, while 2,459 more tested positive in a 24-hour-period.

In a conversation with a private news channel on Tuesday, Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of National Health Services, Regulation and Coordination, Dr Nausheen Hamid, said the country’s private companies will be able to purchase the coronavirus vaccine before it reaches the general market, but the firms will have to register with the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) following which the “rates will be fixed”.

She further said the DRAP would monitor the entire process, from import to sale of vaccines, so there would be no confusion regarding the matter. The development came as National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data showed that Pakistan’s coronavirus positivity ratio was 7.12 per cent, with the highest positivity ratio observed in Hyderabad — 22.45 per cent—followed by Karachi, 19.89 per cent, and Peshawar, 19.04 per cent.

Across federating units, the positivity ratio in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) was 9.4 per cent, Balochistan 14.2 per cent, Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) 0.5 per cent, Islamabad 4.3 per cent, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) 7.2 per cent, Punjab 3.8 per cent and Sindh had 14.9 per cent positivity ratio.

Of the 73 fatalities, 64 people were receiving treatment in hospitals, while 19 patients died on ventilators. Some 3,057 corona patients were admitted in hospitals across the country, 2,495 were in critical condition, while 323 were on ventilators.

The most ventilators were occupied in Multan at 54 per cent, Islamabad 42 per cent, Peshawar 26 per cent and Lahore 33 per cent. Oxygen beds occupancy were highest in Islamabad at 36 per cent, followed by Multan 50 per cent, Peshawar 60 per cent and Karachi 39 per cent.

Meanwhile, the government of Japan has extended grant assistance in the form of 1 billion yen for health and Covid-19 assistance to government of Pakistan. The grant is for Pakistan to purchase medical equipment, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, oxygen generator and cylinders, automated external defibrillator, ECG, ultra low temperature freezer, personal protection equipment, wheel chairs and stretchers under the Economic and Social Development Programme, said a press release issued by Ministry of Economic Affairs on Tuesday.