Pakistan approves initial funds to purchase vaccine
The initial phase of vaccinations would focus on providing free shots for frontline health workers and people above the age of 65 years, says Faisal Sultan
Pakistan approved $150 million in funding to buy COVID-19 vaccines, initially to cover the most vulnerable 5% of the population, the de facto health minister said.
The initial phase of vaccinations would focus on providing free shots for frontline health workers and people above the age of 65 years, Faisal Sultan told a news conference in Islamabad, adding that the go-ahead for funding the programme had been given at a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan.
A panel of experts was compiling a list of recommendations on how to procure the vaccine, Sultan, the prime minister’s special adviser on health, said.
“We will see whether we need to tap more than one source, including some Western manufacturers or some Chinese, so we will move forward with all these options,” he said.
In making a choice, consideration would be given to the vaccine’s efficacy, level of protection and safety, Sultan said, as well as “cold chain” storage requirements and Pakistan’s ability to acquire stocks. An initial conversation has already been opened with several companies, he added.
Pakistan has launched Phase III clinical trials for Cansino Biologics’ COVID-19 vaccine candidate, Ad5-ncov, led by the government-run National Institute of Health (NIH) and pharmaceutical company AJM - the local representative of Cansino.
The South Asian nation of 220 million closed schools to curb new infections and a rise in the number COVID-19 patients at hospitals in late November.
Pakistan’s government reported 67 deaths, the highest single day toll in months, and 2,458 new cases on Tuesday, with 2,165 patients in hospitals in a critical condition.
Overall there have been 400,482 cases recorded in the country so far and 8,091 deaths.
The general public opinion is equally split on the objectives of the opposition alliance, Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) and the narrative of the government, says a survey conducted by Pulse Consultant.
It said almost one third of the respondents (39%) agreed with the government narrative that “opposition alliance was formed to hide/secure their corruption”, whereas almost similar number of respondents ( 40%) believe that the PDM was formed to remove the current government. Some 21% have no opinion in this regard.
Less than half of the respondents (45%) believe that the government stands firm and have no worries with the opposition movement, whereas one third (35%) of the respondents feel that the government’s nerves are shaking due to the opposition’s movement. Twenty percent have no opinion.
The survey findings show that the highest number of respondents in the last two years are ‘indifferent’ (neither satisfied nor dissatisfied) about Prime Minister Imran Khan’s overall performance.
As compared to the July 2020 wave, in the October 2020 wave, satisfaction ( 40% to 3%) and dissatisfaction ( 45%to 40%) with Khan’s overall performance both declined and rose respectively. Of “indifferent” (neither satisfied nor dissatisfied) increased significantly - 14% to 21 percent (+7%)
It says that the opinion on the question ‘on overall basis Pakistan is heading towards a right direction or wrong direction’ is almost same as previous quarter - In July 2020, 52 percent were saying that Pakistan is moving towards a wrong direction - now with the decline of 3 percent, 49 percent seem to be claiming the same. In July 2020, 42 percent had an opinion that on overall basis Pakistan is moving in the right direction, now in October 2020 with the improvement of 1 percent, 43 percent believe that Pakistan is heading towards the right direction. 8 percent have no opinion.
In October 2020 Quarterly Performance Evaluation Survey (QPES) wave, almost half of the respondents (46 percent) have no belief on the premier’s claim that “country is out of economic crisis”, just 10 percent believed on the prime minister’s claim whereas 27 percent ‘somewhat believed’. 17 percent had no opinion. With the improvement of 2 percent - now 63 percent respondents believe that ‘economically, the country is moving towards ‘ wrong direction’.