Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will start vaccinating citizens over 40 years from May 3, with the Chinese vaccines, the National Command and Operation Centre announced.
NCOC chief Asad Umar, said the registration for those in the age group 40 to 49 years was underway.
“They can register by sending their CNIC (Computerized National Identity Card) number to 1166 or on https://nims.nadra.gov.pk/nims/,” he tweeted.
Daily vaccinations crossed the 100,000 mark for the second consecutive day on Thursday. Walk-in vaccinations for people above 50 years had started on Wednesday.
Everyone in this age group can get the COVID-19 vaccine at any nearby centre, said Dr Faisal Sultan, the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant for health.
Dr Sultan had also shared the number of COVID-19 vaccines the government had procured so far.
According to a notification issued by the health ministry, COVID-19 vaccination centres will remain closed from May 13 to May 15 as part of the Eidul Fitr holidays. “The vaccination centres will resume their operations from 16th of May,” added the notification.
Pakistani officials also said that China’s CanSinoBio coronavirus vaccine will be locally manufactured from next month.
According to the National Institute of Health, the arrangements to prepare CanSinoBio’s coronavirus vaccine were done while the raw material for the vaccine would reach Pakistan next week.
NIH had started collaboration with Chinese company while the company’s scientist will also be present in the federal capital to help in the preparation of the vaccine.
The experts also trained NIH experts to prepare vaccine doses. The single-dose vaccines will be ready by the end of May for mass vaccination.
On Thursday, three special flights of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) carrying a fresh batch of one million doses of COVID-19 vaccine flew to Islamabad from Beijing.
So far, the Chinese government has provided three batches of vaccines to Pakistan, and the Chinese military also donated a batch of vaccines to the Pakistani army.
The Pakistani authorities have also purchased vaccines from China.
The Iron Brother has pledged to continue uninterrupted supply of vaccine to help Pakistan defeat the deadly virus.
