ISLAMABAD: Pakistani health minister Faisal Sultan said on Monday he had just gotten the first dose of China’s Sinopharm vaccine and was “feeling fine.”
Pakistan began its COVID-19 vaccination program earlier this month with 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine donated by China. Healthcare workers are being vaccinated in the first phase of the drive, followed by citizens above 60 years of age who will be vaccinated from next month, March.
Pakistan announced last week it would receive 2.8 million doses of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine in early March.
“I registered myself as a health care worker on http://Covid.gov.pk/vaccine and received a PIN & instructions,” Dr. Sultan wrote on Twitter. “Got my 1st dose of vaccine (Sinopharm) today & feeling fine.”
He added: “If you are a health professional (below 60 years of age), please get vaccinated now. Protect yourself and others.”
I registered myself as a healthcare worker on https://t.co/aI3eDz4cvO and received a PIN & instructions. Got my 1st dose of vaccine (Sinopharm) today & feeling fine. If you are a health professional (below 60 years of age), please get vaccinated now. Protect yourself and others pic.twitter.com/6DBcyttnAU
— Faisal Sultan (@fslsltn) February 22, 2021
Pakistan has so far approved China’s Sinopharm and CanSinoBIO vaccines, the AstraZeneca vaccine developed with Oxford University and Russia’s Sputnik V for emergency use.
The country of 220 million people had recorded nearly 572,334 cases of COVID-19 and more than 12,617 deaths as of Monday.