PIA flight brings Sinopharm vaccine consignment from China

KARACHI: A flight of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) carrying a consignment of Sinopharm vaccine from China landed at Islamabad airport last night, quoting sources ARY News reported on Saturday.

The PIA flight brought 7,92,000 doses of Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine to Islamabad, purchased by Pakistan from the Chines firm, according to sources.

Two more consignments of 12,08,000 vaccine doses will arrive from China in next 36 hours, sources said.

A PIA spokesperson earlier said that two Boeing 777 aircraft will arrive in Pakistan from Beijing on Saturday with more than two million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.

It added more than 15 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine had been brought to Pakistan through the flights of the national carrier.

Earlier on Friday, as many as 64,000 more doses of Pfizer vaccine had reached Pakistan. The American vaccine had arrived in Islamabad onboard a foreign airline’s flight.

Pakistan has reported 4,720 new COVID-19 cases during the past 24 hours, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) on Saturday.

The NCOC said that the country’s number of overall confirmed cases has risen to 1,063,125, including 959,491recoveries, adding that the positivity rate of infections was recorded at 8.24 per cent.

The COVID-19 claimed 95 more lives across Pakistan in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll from the disease to 23,797, the NCOC said, adding that 4,275 people are in critical condition.