0.5m additional doses of China's Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine to reach Pakistan tomorrow

ISLAMABAD: An additional 500,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine manufactured by Beijing's state-owned China National Pharmaceutical Group — or Sinopharm — would reach Pakistan tomorrow, Prime Minister Imran Khan's aide on health, Dr Faisal Sultan, announced Wednesday.

Speaking to the media here in Islamabad, Dr Sultan said Pakistan has so far administered over 800,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine.

About 500,000 jabs of the Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine arrived in Pakistan earlier today, he mentioned, adding that another 500,000 would arrive tomorrow.

"Vaccination in Pakistan started with Sinopharm [vaccine]," he said.

The PM's aide also announced that registration for vaccination against the novel coronavirus for people above 50 years of age has been opened now that the elderly, as well as primary healthcare workers and frontline medics, had been administered their first doses.

Earlier today, Health Ministry officials had confirmed that the first shipment of 60,000 doses of the single-dose Chinese vaccine Convidecia — developed by the CanSino Biologics Inc, or CanSinoBIO — arrived in Pakistan Tuesday night.

"Its distribution to provinces and other federating units would commence from Wednesday," a ministry official told The News.

Convidecia's single-dose coronavirus vaccine would only be given to people over 80 years of age since the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) did not wish for octogenarians and those above 90 to visit the vaccination centres a second time, the official stressed.

Separate Adult Vaccination Centers (AVCs) will be made for it, he added.