Pakistan discusses with Saudi Arabia approval of Chinese vaccines for Hajj pilgrims

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has requested Saudi Arabia to include Chinese vaccines to its list of approved COVID-19 shots for visitors traveling to the kingdom to perform Hajj and Umrah, foreign office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said on Saturday.
"Pakistan has taken up with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the issue of vaccines which are mandatory for travel to Saudi Arabia for visit, Umrah and Hajj," Chaudhri said in response to media queries on the issue. "We have proposed inclusion of some of the Chinese vaccines used in Pakistan in the list of vaccines approved by the Saudi authorities."
"The Ministry [of Foreign Affairs] is actively pursuing this matter with the Saudi side," he continued.
Saudi Arabia's new vaccine condition has raised questions for Pakistani nationals who intend to visit the kingdom for pilgrimage or other purposes.
According to media reports, people who have not been administered Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna or Johnson and Johnson shots may need to quarantine themselves for a substantial period on arriving in Saudi Arabia.
Pakistan has mostly administered Chinese vaccines to its citizens in a government-run immunization campaign that began last February.
The country only started using AstraZeneca to inoculate its citizens after receiving 1.2 million doses of the vaccine earlier this month under the World Health Organization's COVAX program for equitable distribution of COVID-19 shots among developing nations.
Hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis visit Saudi Arabia annually, mostly for pilgrimage. The kingdom is also home to a large Pakistani diaspora community that makes the largest contribution to its homeland's incoming remittances every year.