500,000 doses of China-gifted Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine reach Pakistan

BEIJING: Pakistan on Monday received 500,000 doses of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine gifted by China, SAPM on Health Dr Faisal Sultan and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Monday.

A special Pakistan Air Force (PAF) plane with the first tranche of coronavirus vaccine landed in Islamabad earlier today.

Taking to Twitter, SAPM Dr Faisal Sultan thanked China and everyone who made this happen and said the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) and provinces played an instrumental role in tackling COVID.

“I salute our frontline healthcare workers for their efforts & they'll be first to get vaccinated,” he tweeted.

In a separate statement, FM Qureshi said China has gifted 0.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Pakistan adding that the country required 1.1 million more doses by the end of February.

The FM said that the health ministry should devise an easy and transparent mechanism for the registration and administration of the vaccine.

As per details from the NCOC, all necessary measures have been put in place for vaccine storage in Islamabad and the distribution of vaccines to various federating units particularly to Sindh and Balochistan through the air.

A vaccine nerve centre has been established at the NCOC with provincial and district Level vaccine administration.

Pakistan has also been pledged 17 million doses of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine under a global scheme to deliver coronavirus treatments to developing nations.

About 6 million doses will arrive by the end of March under the COVAX scheme, with the remainder due by mid-year, Dr Faisal Sultan announced last week.

The country reported 1,615 new infections and 26 deaths in the latest 24-hours, taking the total number of cases to 546,428, with 11,683 deaths.