Another 2 mln doses of Sinovac vaccine flown in from China

ISLAMABAD: Another two million doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday, ARY News reported.

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said additional Sinovac shots purchased by the Government of Pakistan arrived on board a special flight of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA).

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) is procuring Covid-19 vaccine under the supervision of the NCOC, it said, adding the Sinovac vaccine will be provided to all the provinces.

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The NCOC said the country’s daily vaccination rate will pick up with the arrival of the new consignment.

Pakistan has received a second consignment of Chinese vaccine in less than a week. On Sunday, a PIA plane carrying 1.55mn doses of the Sinovac vaccine arrived in Islamabad from China.

Besides, the second batch of homemade PakVac vaccine has been produced and will be available for use in the next couple of days after approval from the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP).

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According to sources privy to the matter, the Pakistani experts solely manufactured the second batch of the vaccine which is based on the formula of single-dose Chinese vaccine-Cansino. “Previously, the first batch was manufactured with the help of the Chinese experts,” they said.