Lahore, 15th June: Pakistan has allowed the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine for people under 40 years of age to help expatriates.
According to reports, Pakistan now allows the use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine for people below 40 years old, in order to help immunize people who need to travel abroad for education or jobs, particularly in Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan has been inoculating people with the Chinese vaccines Sinopharm, CanSinoBio and Sinovac and had used AstraZeneca for people above 40 years.
The Saudi authorities, on the other hand, have not approved the Chinese shots, so people with Chinese vaccines still need to quarantine upon reaching Saudi Arabia, which is not affordable for many.
Health adviser to the prime minister, Faisal Sultan, said on Tuesday, “From today, we have lifted the restriction for use of AstraZeneca for below 40 years.”
The COVID-19 vaccines that the Saudi Kingdom had approved so far are AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson after which people are not required to go under quarantine period upon arrival.
Faisal Sultan informed that the government is using diplomatic channels to see if Saudi Arabia approves Chinese vaccines in the future.
It is to be noted that Pakistan received 1.2 million doses of AstraZeneca under the COVAX facility during early May.
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First batch of AstraZeneca vaccine reaches Pakistan via Covax facility
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