ISLAMABAD: A special Pakistan Air Force (PAF) plane which left for Beijing on Sunday evening is on its way back with the first batch of 500,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses pledged by China to Islamabad, state-run media reported Saturday evening.
The move follows a Jan. 21 phone call between Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, wherein the latter announced Beijing’s initiative to “gift” 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to Pakistan as “aid.”
“Special plane leaves with first batch of COVID-19 vaccine for Islamabad,” the Associated Press of Pakistan said in a tweet.
In a statement on Sunday, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), which oversees Pakistan’s coronavirus response, said that the necessary steps had been taken to store the vaccine in Islamabad.
“All necessary measures have been put in place for vaccine storage at Islamabad and move of vaccine to various federating units particularly to Sindh and Balochistan through the air,” it added.
“All necessary measures have been put in place for vaccine storage at Islamabad and move of vaccine to various federating units particularly to Sindh and Balochistan through the air,” it added.
The NCOC has also set up a vaccine nerve center “with the provincial and district level vaccine administration and coordination and adult vaccination centers.”
China’s foreign ministry added that the vaccines would be sent in batches before directing Chinese firms to expedite the export process to Pakistan.
Earlier this month, Pakistani regulators approved two vaccines – by China’s Sinopharm and Oxford-AstraZeneca – for emergency use.
On Saturday, Planning Minister Asad Umar said that Pakistan would receive nearly 17 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine in the next six months.
Announcing the “good news” on Twitter, Umar said that he had received the intimation from the World Health Organization’s Covax forum which ensures equal distribution of COVID-19 vaccines to developing countries.
Meanwhile, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr. Faisal Sultan tweeted on Saturday that Pakistan would kickstart its vaccination drive from next week, with the first doses to be administered to frontline health care workers.
As of Sunday, the national tally stood at 544,813 cases with 1,599 new infections and 34 deaths reported in the past 24 hours, according to government data.
