Pakistan Army contributes Chinese-donated Sinpharm vaccine to national drive

RAWALPINDI: Chinese military on Monday donated the coronavirus vaccines to the  Pakistan Army, but the latter chose to contribute the donation in the national vaccination drive, according to a statement issued by the  Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR).

"People’s Liberation Army (PLA), People’s Republic of China has donated COVID-19 vaccine for Pakistan Armed Forces," the ISPR said.

The military's media wing said that the army will not keep the vaccine but instead contribute to the national vaccine drive so that frontline health workers could be vaccinated first.

The ISPR said that the contribution was done to keep with the "Pakistan Armed Forces' traditional spirit of nation comes first, always and every time".

The statement said that contribution was made so the real heroes fighting against the pandemic get vaccinated and precious lives be saved.

"Pakistan’s Armed forces extend their deepest gratitude to PLA and People’s Republic of China for this magnanimous donation during testing times," the statement read.

This is Pakistan's second consignment of the Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine.

Last week, it was reported that close to half a million doses of the vaccine will be brought to Pakistan via a special flight of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force.

Pakistan has already received 500,000 doses of the Chinese vaccine, which is being used to inoculate frontline healthcare workers in the country. So far, over 12,000 frontline healthcare workers have already been vaccinated.

Health authorities in Pakistan had earlier confirmed that the country will get 6 to 7 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca’s AZD1222 vaccine by the end of the current month, which would be used to inoculate the remaining healthcare workers as well as people above 65 years of age.

Due to lack of data, the Chinese vaccine is not recommended for people above 60 years of age.

Health authorities had said that through the COVAX facility Pakistan was expected to get at least 17 million doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca’s vaccine, while it is also hopeful of getting a few hundred thousand doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s mRNA vaccine “BNT162b2” in donation, for which Ultra Cold Chain (UCC) equipment is also being acquired.

Pakistan has so far granted emergency use authorisation for three vaccines — Sinopharm, AstraZeneca and Sputnik V developed by Russia — but so far only China’s Sinopharm vaccine has managed to reach the country.