Another 0.5 million doses of Chinese vaccine arrive in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: A special plane arrived at Islamabad’s Nur Khan airbase from China on Wednesday carrying half a million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Well-informed sources told ARY News that the plane touched down at 12pm. Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan formally received the 0.5 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine.

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The jabs were to arrive in the country yesterday but got delayed due to some reasons, the sources said. The Chinese vaccine will be shifted to the Expanded Programme on Immunisation’s (EPI) warehouse from where it will be moved to vaccination centres across the country.

The sources said Pakistan purchased the 0.5 million doses from the Chinese firm at a discounted rate. The firm will provide more jabs in phases. The National Institute of Health (NIH) already has an approval for emergency use of the Chinese vaccine.

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Earlier today, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar tweeted that Pakistan recorded “the highest daily vaccination rate” yesterday. He said more than 41,000 people were inoculated against the novel coronavirus the other day.

“Highest daily vaccination rate of over 41 thousand vaccinations achieved yesterday. Of these 28, 424 vaccinations were carried out of senior citizens,” Umar, who heads the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), wrote on his official Twitter handle