UPDATE 1-Pakistan to start COVID-19 vaccination drive next week, minister says

(Updates with more details and context)

By Asif Shahzad and Syed Raza Hassan

ISLAMABAD, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Pakistan will launch its
COVID-19 vaccination drive next week, starting with front-line
health workers, a government minister said on Wednesday.

"God willing, the vaccination of front-line health workers
will start next week," Asad Umar, who oversees Pakistan's
efforts to stem the coronavirus pandemic, said in a tweet.

China has pledged to donate 500,000 doses of coronavirus
vaccine made by the Chinese firm SinoPharm.

Two government sources said the first batch would be flown
in on Saturday.

Pakistan has so far approved two vaccines for emergency use,
one made by China National Pharmaceutical Group (SinoPharm) and
the other by AstraZeneca.

Russia's Sputnik V vaccine is also likely to get similar
approval, officials say, adding that the authorisations will be
reviewed quarterly with regard to safety, efficacy and quality.

Health Minister Faisal Sultan has said Pakistan could get
"in the range of tens of millions" of vaccine doses under an
agreement with China's Cansino Biologics Inc.

Cansino's Ad5-nCoV vaccine candidate is nearing completion
of Phase III clinical trials in Pakistan, and preliminary
results may be available by mid-February, Sultan said.

The South Asian nation of 220 million people also expects
China to donate a further million vaccine doses.

Dr Ghazna Khalid, a member of the government task force on
COVID-19, said Pakistan would procure vaccines from various
markets.

"There's going to be an accumulation of vaccines, a
consortium available, there’s going to be Chinese vaccines,
there's going to be AstraZeneca," she said.

"We are the fifth biggest country in the world, and it's
going to be very difficult to immunise."

Pakistan reported 1,563 new coronavirus infections and 74
deaths in the latest 24-hour period, taking the total number of
cases to more than 537,477, with 11,450 deaths.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad and Umar Farooq in Islamabad and
Raza Hasan in Karachi; Editing by Kevin Liffey)