-- According to the country's National Institute of Health (NIH), some 17,500 people from different social circles and areas of the country have volunteered to take part in the trials underway at five different sites in Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi, the major cities of Pakistan.
-- Qaisar Sohail, area manager of AJM Pharma, a pharmaceutical company which is a partner of the trial and would sponsor the vaccine in Pakistan after its final launch in China, said that people are eagerly awaiting the vaccine in Pakistan to combat the hike in COVID-19 cases and fatalities during the second wave, which is also a motivating factor for the trial volunteers.
-- "China has always played a major role in helping Pakistan in different sectors ... Now China offered us phase III clinical trials, helping us to upgrade in the health sector," Ghazala Parveen, chief of Biological Production Division at the NIH, told Xinhua.
A medical worker takes blood sample from a volunteer before giving him a shot during the phase III trials of a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine in Islamabad, capital of Pakistan, on Jan. 8, 2021. (Xinhua/Ahmad Kamal)
by Misbah Saba Malik, Liu Tian
ISLAMABAD, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- Having volunteered to take part in the phase III trials of a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine in a private hospital here, Majid Abbasi had mixed feelings.
Though some members of his family expressed concern, the 21-year-old student was eager to have the vaccine administered because it would give him a better chance to defeat the disease, and in a broader sense, a safe and effective vaccine could be a way out for humanity to beat the pandemic.
"The pandemic has hit Pakistan hard. Hundreds of thousands of people got infected and thousands died," Abbasi said.
"I believe that volunteering for the vaccine will not only help me to get myself protected from the disease, but I will proudly tell my friends and family that I made a small effort to help the world get (a) vaccine by being one of the volunteers to be a part of the trials," he told Xinhua after being vaccinated.
