ISLAMABAD: The government has approached two pharmaceutical companies to pre-order the coronavirus vaccine after Prime Minister Imran Khan approved its proactive purchase plan, reported a local media outlet on Thursday.

Quoting the parliamentary secretary for health, Dr Nausheen Hamid, Geo News said that the payment will soon be made to the international companies, though the authorities have yet to reveal their names.

Pakistan has recorded over 361,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and about 7,200 related deaths since it reported its first case in the last week of February.

According to senior government functionaries and medical experts, the country is once again witnessing an alarming rise in the number of infections and has been hit by the second wave of the pandemic.

Pakistan reported 2,050 new cases in the last 24 hours and 33 deaths due to the virus.

With the purchase of vaccines, the government plans to immunize 10 million people in the first phases, giving priority to frontline workers and individuals over 65 years of age.

Last week, Arab News reported that Pakistan had allocated an initial funding of $150 million to purchase a COVID-19 vaccine directly from the international market by the second quarter of the next calendar year.

“We are in negotiation with different companies that are expected to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine by March next year to procure the sufficient doses,” Dr Malik Mohammad Safi, director general for health at the Ministry of National Health Services, told the newspaper in exclusive remarks.

“We are in the process of advance booking of the vaccine from different companies and the government has also allocated an initial funding of $150 million for the purpose,” he continued while declining to name the companies, though he added that funding would be increased if necessary.