PAF aircraft departs for Beijing to bring first tranche of Covid-19 vaccine

ISLAMABAD: A special aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) departed for Beijing on Sunday to bring the first batch of a China-made Covid-19 vaccine to Pakistan.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), all arrangements for storage, transportation and administration of the vaccine have been finalised.

Also Read: Pakistan to begin COVID-19 vaccination drive next week: Asad Umar

It said all measures for vaccine distribution across Sindh and Balochistan provinces have also been finalised.

The NCOC said a special vaccination centre has been set up in Islamabad while such centres in all provinces at a district-level are yet to be established.

Also Read: China to gift 0.5mn doses of Sinopharm vaccine to Pakistan by Jan 31: FM Qureshi

China had promised to gift 500,000 doses of a coronavirus vaccine to Pakistan by January 31.

A day earlier, Federal Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar said that Pakistan will likely get 17 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine by March.

Turning to social media via his official Twitter handle, the federal minister announced, “Good news on covid vaccine front.” He added that Pakistan received a response letter from Covax which indicated “supply of up to 17 million doses of AstraZeneca in 1st half 2021”.