Pakistan starts distributing Pfizer vaccine doses among provinces

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan started distributing Pfizer vaccine doses among provinces, as per a report on Geo News. 

According to the report, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health, Dr Faisal Sultan said Tuesday that the vaccine doses will be used to inoculate only the immunocompromised. 

Speaking about the immunocompromised, Dr Faisal said the Ministry of Health will soon release details pertaining to it on its portal. 

How much is each province getting?

The premier's aide said the federal government was distributing 51,000 doses of the vaccine, adding that it had received 106,000 doses of the vaccine via COVAX.

Providing a province-wise breakdown of the distribution, Dr Faisal said Punjab will receive 26,000 doses of the mRNA vaccine while Sindh will get 12,000 doses.

He said Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has been sent 8,000 doses while Balochistan has been given 2,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

One thousand doses of the Pfizer vaccine will be sent to Islamabad, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan, he added.

Dr Faisal said the Pfizer vaccine will be used to inoculate people throughout 15 cities of Pakistan, adding that these cities had ultra-cold freezers.

Last month, more than 100,000 doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine arrived in Pakistan through the COVAX facility.

The doses reached Islamabad with the help of UNICEF.

The Pfizer vaccine will be utilised across the country in the ongoing vaccination campaign, said UNICEF.

This was the second shipment to have arrived through the COVAX facility in Pakistan. The first, which arrived on May 8, contained 1,248,400 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.