In a recent development, Pakistan on Tuesday launched its home-made COVID-19 vaccine named “PakVac”. In order to vaccinate people in the country and control the spread of coronavirus, Pakistan developed the local version of China’s single-dose CanSino vaccine. As per the sources, China helped the country locally produce the CanSino vaccine so that the country could move towards self-sufficiency in terms of COVID-19 vaccine.

The Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr. Faisal Sultan said that Pakistan is trying its best to overcome the difficult challenges caused due to the pandemic and turn these hard times into opportunities with the help of friends.

He further added, “We found our friend China closest to us in overcoming the COVID-19 challenge.” He even thanked China and said, “China was already a friend and came forward when coronavirus hit Pakistan.”

Dr. Sultan while showcasing his proud moment, lauded the National Institute of Health (NIH) for its pathbreaking development. He said, “Although, China provided the raw material for the development of the vaccine but still it was not easy to develop it.”

The local mass production of the vaccine will begin soon and will be seen in the markets of Pakistan in the coming days.

Recently, Pakistan received over 100,000 doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine through the COVAX facility. Earlier, the country received its first shipment on May 8, consisting of 1,238,400 doses of AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccines. Apart from this, the global vaccine-sharing platform, COVAX has also pledged to provide 17.2 million vaccine doses to Pakistan.