Pakistan Authorizes AstraZeneca's COVID-19 Vaccine

Pakistan’s Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) announced it had “granted emergency use authorization to AstraZeneca-Oxford coronavirus vaccine,” Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health, Dr. Faisal Sultan’s office confirmed to Gulf News on January 16, 2021.

The AstraZeneca COVID-19 (AZD1222) coronavirus vaccine is made from a weakened version of a common cold virus (adenovirus) that has been genetically changed so that it can't grow in humans.

Pakistan previously announced it would provide COVID-19 vaccines free of charge to its citizens. Pakistan’s frontline healthcare workers would be at the top of the vaccine priority list, followed by people over 65 years of age.

Additionally, Pakistan has enrolled in the COVAX Global Alliance for vaccine immunization, and expects to receive around 50 million coronavirus vaccines, Dr. Sultan added.

'COVAX is necessary because without it there is a very real risk that the majority of people in the world will go unprotected against SARS-CoV-2, and this would allow the virus and its impact to continue unabated, states GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance.