Decision soon on Covid-19 vaccine availability in Pak: NCOC

Islamabad, Dec 24 (IANS) Pakistan's National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has announced that the federal government will soon make a decision about the availability of a vaccine against the novel coronavirus in the country at the earliest.In a statement on Wednesday, the NCOC said the government was regularly reviewing developments taking place around the globe, including data from phase 3 trials, reports Dawn news."These steps will lead to a final decision about early availability of the vaccine in Pakistan," it said.On Wednesday, the country reported 2,142 new Covid-19 cases with 84 fatalities, which increased the overall infection tally and death toll to 465,070 and 9,558, respectively.University of Health Sciences Vice Chancellor and Scientific Task Force on Covid-19 member Javed Akram disclosed that 15,000 people, 80 per cent of the total volunteers, had been administered Chinese vaccine expressing the hope that the trial would end in December.In Pakistan, the clinical trial of the Chinese vaccine began in September with the initial sample size of 10,000 volunteers. However, the number was enhanced to 18,000 later.The vaccine is ribonucleic acid based and will generate antibodies against the spikes as a result of which the virus will not be able to attach itself to lungs.
--IANS ksk/