Pakistan relaxes procurement rules to purchase COVID-19 vaccine on emergency basis

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government has relaxed the rules to procure COVID-19 vaccine on emergency basis, officials said on Wednesday. The decision to relax the Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules to purchase the vaccine was taken at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday, they said.

As per the decision, there will be no need to fulfil the tender requirement to procure the vaccine, which will be purchased from any of the six companies registered with the Ministry of National Health Services (NHS).

"The federal cabinet, in order to save human lives timely and on an emergency basis, accorded approval for the purchase of COVID-19 vaccine by the Ministry of Health," said a statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office.

The government last month had allocated USD 150 million for procurement of the coronavirus vaccine. It was also decided in December that health workers fighting on the frontline and people over 65 years of age would be vaccinated in the first phase.

Meanwhile, with 52 more people succumbing to the viral infection in the last 24 hours, the COVID-19 death toll reached 10,461 in the country, while the number of total cases touched 492,594 after 2,118 new infections were reported in the last one day, according to the health ministry.