Islamabad, January 16: Pakistan granted approval for the emergency use of Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covid-19 vaccine on Saturday. Talking to Geo News, Dr Faisal Sultan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Health, confirmed that the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) has authorised the emergency use of the vaccine.

Two days ago, the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company had sought permission from Pakistani authorities to get its Covid-19 vaccine registered in the country, sources informed Geo News. A local pharmaceutical company has submitted AstraZeneca's vaccine data to DRAP, they informed.

The Oxford University-AstraZeneca vaccine was first approved by the United Kingdom in December. The clinical trials of the vaccines showed the dosage to be safe and effective at preventing symptomatic Covid-19, with no severe cases and no hospitalisations more than 14 days after the second dose. Norway Reports Deaths of 23 After Receiving Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine, 13 Were Nursing Home Patients.

This comes after India, which has already approved the AstraZeneca vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII), had started its mass vaccination campaign earlier today.

Termed as the world's largest vaccination programme, covering the entire length and breadth of India, the drive aims to first vaccinate millions of its healthcare and frontline workers and then reach an estimated 3 crore people by the end of its first phase.

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