ISLAMABAD: Pakistani health chief Dr. Faisal Sultan has said the government expected it will have received a total of 19 million doses of coronavirus vaccines by the first half of 2021. 

Pakistan is currently battling a third wave of the coronavirus, and in the last 24 hours recorded 4,213 new infections and 79 deaths. 

“We expect to receive 19 million doses of COVID vaccines by the first half of the current year,” Sultan said while addressing a press conference at the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC), adding that 90 percent of the jabs would be purchased by the government. “This makes it clear that under no circumstances are we only dependent on donations and gifts.”

Deals for 30 million doses have been signed so far, the health chief said. Pakistan’s population eligible for the vaccine is 100 million, according to the health ministry. 

“We want to vaccinate 70 million people by the end of the year,” Sultan said. 

Pakistan, a country of 220 million people, has seen record deaths in recent days from the coronavirus, and stricter restrictions on movement and gathering in public are planned for the upcoming Eid Al-Fitr holiday. Officials are worried the country’s health care system, already under strain, could reach breaking point if more contagious variants of the virus begin to spread, as has happened in neighboring India.

Last Thursday, Pakistan said it had purchased 13 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from three Chinese companies and expected to receive them in the next two months.

The vaccines were procured from Sinopharm, CanSinoBio (6185.HK) and Sinovac, Dr. Sultan told Reuters, saying they would supplement around 2.4 million shots from the COVAX program for poorer nations that are expected to arrive during that period.

“We will be continuously procuring from all available sources across the world,” Sultan said. “For now, China remains the primary source for vaccines to meet our present and ongoing needs but all our options are open for effective and safe vaccines.”

Sultan said around 2.4 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, part of the first tranche of 14 millionz doses under the COVAX program run by the World Health Organization and GAVI, would also be arriving and it would likely come from South Korea.

Only slightly more than 2 million people have been vaccinated so far, the lowest rate in South Asia.