Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Another two million doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday, media 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.
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).
According to reports, 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.
Pakistan has also made an agreement to procure 13 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer.
An exact timeline was not yet available, health minister Faisal Sultan told reporters, but said the doses would arrive by the end of 2021, under an agreement the government has made with the manufacturer.
Pakistan has started a mass vaccination campaign late last month that is now open to all adults.
On May 29, Pakistan received 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine through the COVAX facility, but authorities have only administered those to people who are immunocompromised and not suitable for other vaccines.
Pakistan has primarily used Chinese vaccines – Sinopharm, CanSinoBio and Sinovac- in its inoculation drive and, earlier this month began allowing those under 40 to receive AstraZeneca, of which it has a limited supply meant for people traveling to countries that require it.
