PIA airlifts one million coronavirus vaccine doses from China

ISLAMABAD: Three planes of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) carrying a consignment of one million COVID-19 vaccine doses arrived in Islamabad on Sunday as the country sees a sharp increase in new coronavirus cases, ARY News reported.

According to a National Health Ministry official, three PIA Boeing 777 aircraft have brought one million Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccines from China.

The aircrafts had left for China on Saturday. Two special planes and a PIA regular flight were used to airlift the corona vaccine doses from Beijing.

3 special #PIA B777s have arrived at #Beijing to urgently uplift a million #COVID19 vaccines to fight the surge in pandemic in the country. Operating on advise of @OfficialNcoc & @ndmapk, PIA will carry on performing its national duties in time of need. #PakistanZindabad pic.twitter.com/2NBBJYNnqA

— PIA (@Official_PIA) April 24, 2021

Moreover, Pakistan has also purchased another 30 million doses of COVID vaccine from China that will soon arrive in the country to help in a drive to vaccinate its over 220 million population.

According to sources privy to the development, the country has purchased 30.5 million COVID vaccine doses from three Chinese companies.

Read More: Pakistan receives another 500,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine

“Pakistan will purchase 20 million jabs of single-dose COVID vaccine from CanSino besides also purchasing 5.5 million doses from Sinopharm and 5 million from Sinovac,” they said.

China previously gifted 1.5 million vaccine doses to Islamabad.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan has already begun vaccinating elderly people aged above 60-year-old and health professionals. The vaccination of people in the age group 50-59 has also been started from April 21.

Read More: Pakistan purchases over 30 million COVID doses from China: sources

Pakistan began a vaccination drive last month with over a million doses of Sinopharm vaccines donated by China.

Islamabad received the first COVID-19 vaccine consignment after a military aircraft airlifted it from Beijing in February 1, this year.

Statistics 25 April 21:
Total Tests in Last 24 Hours: 55,128
Positive Cases: 5611
Positivity % : 10.17%
Deaths : 118

— NCOC (@OfficialNcoc) April 25, 2021

The pandemic has claimed 118 more lives in the country during the last 24 hours.

According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) data, 118 people died of Covid-19 in a single day, pushing the national tally to 17,117.

As many as 5,611 new infections surfaced when 55,611 samples were tested. The country’s overall positivity ratio of new cases jumped to 10.17%, according to the NCOC.