COVID-19: India to send 45 million doses of made-in-India vaccines to Pakistan

India is likely to send 16 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to Pakistan by June this year.

Moneycontrol News

March 10, 2021 / 10:28 AM IST

Illustration Of India And Pakistan Flags Waving

India is likely to send 45 million doses of Made-in-India vaccines to Pakistan under an agreement with GAVI alliance. The GAVI Alliance (formerly the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation) is a global health partnership dedicated to providing "immunisation for all".

Of the 45 million, 16 million vaccine doses will be sent by June this year, News18 reported, citing sources.

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"India is open to provide any humanitarian help to Pakistan. More vaccine will be given directly. A decision on this will be taken soon," officials said, requesting anonymity.

Pakistan's drug regulator, Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan, approved the Oxford-AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in January this year. The country plans to vaccinate at least 70 percent of its 220 million people free of cost.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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