Almost seven million ‘Made In India’ AstraZeneca’s Covishield Covid19 vaccines are going to be a part of Pakistan’s Covid19 vaccination drive that begins next week, reports The Times of India.

Pakistan has secured 17 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine under the global Covax alliance which aims to deliver coronavirus treatments to developing nations.

Covax is co-led by Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and World Health Organization (WHO). Its aim is to accelerate the development and manufacture of COVID-19 vaccines, and to guarantee fair and equitable access for every country in the world.

In 2020, Pakistan signed up this vaccine sharing scheme coordinated by WHO to support lower-income countries.

“Though AstraZeneca is being prepared in India, it will come through Covax, an international alliance which has announced free vaccines for 20% of Pakistan’s population. DRAP (Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan) has already registered both Sinopharm and AstraZeneca,” PM Imran Khan’s special assistant on health Dr Faisal Sultan said on Sunday (31 January).

Pakistan is going to launch its vaccination drive against Covid19 by initially targeting the health workers. Around five lakh Covid19 vaccines made by China’s National Pharmaceutical Group (SinoPharm) will be part of it.

On the other hand, India has completed vaccinating 37 lakh healthcare workers as of the 15th day of its nationwide immunization drive against COVID-19 on Saturday (30 January).

It should be noted that the Modi government in India is aiming to vaccinate over 30 crore high-risk groups by July. These include healthcare workers, frontline workers and the elderly and those with any comorbidities.