Lahore, 4th February: The Chinese Sinopharm vaccine for COVID-19 is not recommended for people aged above 60, reports from health officials.
Baaghi TV: Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan said on Thursday that Sinopharm vaccine which is being administered in Pakistan from this week, is not recommended for people older than 60 years.
While speaking to reporters in Islamabad he said that after the initial investigation on Sinopharm vaccine the government’s expert committee has recommended that the vaccine be licensed for people aged 18-60 at this stage.
He added, “At this stage, the committee did not authorise the vaccine for people older than 60.”
He further said, “When new medicines come, such things happen and the basis is whether that [age group of the] population or people with certain conditions were included in the research for it. When we get more data, perhaps it will be used for people above 60 as well.”
Pakistan started vaccinating frontline health workers a day earlier, days after receiving half a million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine donated by China.
Last month the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) had approved Chinese state-owned firm Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.
So far, three vaccines have been approved to be used in the country, Sinopharm’s vaccine, Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, and the vaccine developed by Oxford University, AstraZeneca.
When Dr Sultan was asked which vaccine would be used for people over 60 instead of Sinopharm’s, he informed that the AstraZeneca vaccine would be used instead.
According to reports from Dawn News, SAPM said, “When our Pakistani experts looked at the data they were reasonably satisfied with the AstraZeneca data but felt that [based] on the presently available numbers for Sinopharm, the data did not justify its usage for those aged over 60. The Chinese have also reiterated this restriction.”
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