Pakistan has successfully launched a locally developed COVID-19 vaccine called PakVac on Tuesday.
The vaccine which has been developed in collaboration with China’s Cansino Bio was launched at a ceremony in Islamabad.
“We found our friend China closest to us in overcoming the Covid-19 challenge,” said the Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan addressed the launch ceremony.
Read more: List of COVID-19 Vaccination Centres in Pakistan [Complete Details].
He said that the country will soon be able to start the production of the locally made COVID-19 vaccine ‘PakVac’.
Meanwhile, the head of the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) Asad Umar said that it was an important day for Pakistan.
He said that Pakistanis preferred the Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines compared to those manufactured in Western countries, adding that people who came to coronavirus vaccination centers actually asked to be inoculated with vaccines produced by China.
“We need to promote PakVac as it is produced by us.” said Asad Umar.
PakVac COVID-19 vaccine has been made after rigorous quality control checks and meets the World Health organization (WHO) standards.
Dr Faisal Sultan lauded the National Institute of Health (NIH) for developing the vaccine.
“Congratulations to the NIH Pak team and its leadership for successful fill/finish (from concentrate) of the Cansino vaccine with the help of Cansino Bio Inc. China. The product has passed rigorous internal QA testing. An imp step to help in our vaccine supply line,” he wrote on Twitter.
Congratulations to the NIH Pak team and its leadership for successful fill/finish (from concentrate) of the Cansino vaccine with the help of Cansino Bio Inc. China. The product has passed the rigorous internal QA testing. An imp step to help in our vaccine supply line pic.twitter.com/hrkySTJxPX
— Faisal Sultan (@fslsltn) May 24, 2021
Read more: COVID-19 vaccination of people over 18 to start from 3 June.