ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s federal cabinet on Tuesday gave approval to the ministry of health to purchase COVID-19 vaccine doses on an emergency basis, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

Last week, Pakistan said it would purchase 1.2 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from China’s Sinopharm, in the first official confirmation of a vaccine purchase by the South Asian country as it battles a second wave of infections.

Pakistan reported 2,118 new infections and 52 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to a government tally, pushing total cases up to 492,594, with 10,461 fatalities. The portal said 2,243 patients were in critical conditions while the number of active coronavirus patients was 33,740.

“To save lives timely and on an emergency basis, the cabinet approves purchase of COVD-19 vaccine to the Federal Ministry of Health,” the PM office said.

Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported that the country would relax Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules to procure the vaccine quickly and seamlessly.

“There will be no need to fulfil the tender requirement to procure the vaccine, which will be procured from any of the six companies registered with the Ministry of National Health Services,” the newspaper reported.

One federal minister told Dawn the cabinet had allowed relaxation in PPRA rules to purchase the vaccine from a Chinese firm, “because it was the only company that had completed all tests prior to marketing the vaccine.”