ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will receive a batch of 500,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine today, Wednesday, state-run news agency Associated Press of Pakistan reported. 

Once the latest batch arrives, Pakistan will have received 1.5 million Sinopharm doses within a week: 500,000 jabs on Sunday and another 500,000 yesterday, Tuesday. The country has received almost 20 million doses since February.

A Pakistan International Airlines plane carrying 500,000 Chinese Sinopharm vaccine doses arrives in Islamabad from Beijing on June 1, 2021. (Photo courtesy: APP)

Pakistan last week opened up its coronavirus vaccination campaign to everyone aged 19 or older as it scrambles to protect more of its 220 million people during a third wave of the pandemic. Infection rates have gone down significantly in the last three weeks and more than 7.6 million doses of the vaccine have been administered.

On Tuesday, Pakistan in collaboration with China’s Cansino Bio launched a locally developed coronavirus vaccine called the PakVac.

Pakistan reported 1,843 new cases of the coronavirus and 80 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the tally of confirmed cases to 924,667 infections and 20,930 deaths since the start of pandemic in February last year.