Pakistan to send special plane to China to receive first tranche of anti-COVID-19 vaccine
Islamabad, Jan 30: Pakistan will send a special plane to China on Sunday to bring back the first batch of the 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine that Beijing has promised to provide to its close ally.
The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), during a meeting here on the strategy of vaccine administration, said on Saturday that the country is geared up for the vaccination programme.
The forum was apprised that a special plane will fly to China tomorrow (Sunday) for transportation of the first tranche of vaccine, according to a statement from the NCOC.
The move comes after Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on January 21, following a call with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, had announced that China will provide 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Pakistan by January 31.
He said that Beijing had asked Islamabad to send an airplane to get the vaccines.
Pakistan has approved two foreign anti-COVID vaccines as of now, including the Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine, for emergency use in the country.
All necessary measures have been put in place for vaccine storage at Islamabad and distribute the vaccine to various federating units particularly to Sindh and Balochistan provinces, the statement said.
The vaccine nerve centre has been established at the NCOC with provincial and district level vaccine administration across the country for vaccination in a systematic manner, it said.
Pakistan plans to provide vaccines to frontline health workers and elderly people in the first phase.
Meanwhile, a senior Pakistan minister said that the country would get up to 17 million doses of anti-coronavirus vaccine in the first half of this year.
Asad Umar , who is the minister for planning, in a tweet said that the vaccine would be provided by Covax, which is an alliance set up in April last year by Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation (GAVI), Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the World Health Organisation.
Good news on COVID vaccine front received letter from Covax of indicative supply of up to 17 million doses of AstraZeneca in 1st half 2021, said Umar.
He also said that about 6 million will be received by March with delivery starting in February, he added.
The number of COVID-19 cases in the country has reached 543,214 after 2,179 new infections were reported in the last 24 hours, according to the ministry of National Health Services.
Another 65 patients died in this period, taking the number of COVID-19 deaths to 11,623 while some 2,111 patients were in a critical condition.
Also, 498,152 people have recovered so far, which means that the number of active patients was 33,439. The authorities performed 41,435 tests in the last one day. It showed that the positivity rate was 5.25 percent.
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Austrian police detain suspect in case of rat poison found in baby food jars on supermarket shelves
Vienna (AP): Police in eastern Austria say a 39-year-old suspect has been arrested after rat poison turned up in some HiPP baby food jars on supermarket shelves in central Europe.
HiPP, which recalled some of its baby food jars in Austria, Slovakia and the Czech Republic after the case came to light last month, said in a statement Saturday it was “greatly relieved” by the arrest, and would provide further updates as verified details come in.
The Burgenland State Criminal Police Office, under the direction of prosecutors, said a probe was launched after poison turned up in a baby food jar purchased at a supermarket in the city of Eisenstadt on April 18.
It said the suspect was being questioned, and that no further details would be immediately provided. The Burgenland public prosecutor's office has announced an investigation into suspected “intentional endangerment of the public.”
The Austrian Press Agency reported that an expert report on the toxicity of the poison was pending. A total of five tampered baby food jars were seized before they could be consumed, APA reported.
Authorities said previously they believe the tampering occurred in 190-gram (6.7-ounce) jars of baby food made with carrots and potatoes for 5-month-olds that were sold from SPAR supermarkets in Austria.
HiPP responded by recalling all of its baby food jars sold at SPAR supermarkets — which include SPAR, EUROSPAR, INTERSPAR and Maximarkt stores — in Austria as a precaution. Vendors in Slovakia and the Czech Republic also removed all of the brand's baby jars from sale.
The company said the recall was not due to any product or quality defect on its part, and said the jars left its facility in “perfect condition.”
Police said a customer at the time of the discovery had reported that a jar appeared to have been tampered with, but no one had consumed the baby food.
