500,000 doses of Chinese vaccine to arrive in Pakistan today

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will receive its first shipment of the 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine after Islamabad finalised an agreement with Chinese company Sinopharm to buy the much sought-after drug from them, sources told Geo News on Tuesday.

Sources say that Sinopharm will provide the coronavirus vaccine to Pakistan in phases as per the agreement. They also added that the first tranche of the vaccine will arrive in the country today.

The officials, privy to the development, said that Pakistan is also in talks with another Chinese company CanSino to buy their vaccine for its 220 million population.

Read more: Chinese vaccine Sinopharm safe for people above 60, says Dr Nausheen Hamid

However, an official of the health ministry said that the 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine have been donated by China.

Earlier this month, while talking to reporters at the 70th anniversary of Pakistan-China ties, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi announced China will be gifting Pakistan an additional batch of 500,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine. “The vaccine will be used for our healthcare workers and our senior citizens,” he added.

Currently, Pakistan is vaccinating the country’s healthcare workers and people over the age of 60 after launching the vaccination drive on February 2.

Sinopharm, developed by state-run China National Pharmaceutical Group, has shown to be 79% effective.

Meanwhile, last week, it was reported that Pakistan is expected to receive the first batch of Chinese company Cansino Bio’s vaccine for COVID-19 within a week after it placed an order for the single-dose vaccine.

Besides the delivery from China, Pakistan is also on the list to receive 17,160,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines through the global COVAX platform.