Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan has said that the coronavirus vaccine is expected to be available in Pakistan next year in February or March.

The SAPM said that the COVID-19 vaccine will be administered to people in phases, and will be administered to health professionals first, ARY reported. The federal cabinet has approved to allocate $150 million to acquire a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, he said.

The vaccine will be provided by the government free of cost to the people, the SAPM added.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Munir Akram has said that developing countries need between 2 to 3 trillion dollars to revive their economies in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. He said developing countries do not have access to even a small fraction of that amount and are falling into debt.

For the past two months, the country has been witnessing an alarming increase in coronavirus cases. In the last 24 hours, the country reported 3,795 new cases, taking the tally to 420,294.

The country also reported 37 fatalities, taking the death toll to 8,398. Meanwhile, 1,530 more people have recovered from COVID-10. So far, 356,542 people have recovered from the novel virus.