Pakistan gets 500,000 more doses of Sinopharm vaccine

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister for Health Dr Faisal Sultan said that another 500,000 doses of Chinese COVID-19 vaccine Sinopharm have reached Pakistan while another 500,000 doses will reach tomorrow.

Talking to the media on the occasion of receiving the vaccine at Noor Khan Airbase Islamabad, Dr Faisal Sultan said, another consignment of the anti-corona vaccine has reached Pakistan which includes 500,000 doses of Sinopharm whereas 500,000 more doses of Sinopharm will also reach tomorrow. Vaccination in Pakistan has been started with Sinopharm while more than 800,000 doses have been administered to masses.

The Special Assistant said: “The third wave of the corona has been intensified in the country. Vaccination is a strategy to prevent the virus, including the use of masks, social distance and gatherings. Since March 30, we have started registration of people over 50 years of age and the time for them to get vaccination will also come.”

"We are accelerating the vaccination process and want to take it to a stage where a large number of Pakistanis would be vaccinated to prevent a significant spread of the virus," he said.

Thanking China and appreciating their willingness to curb the virus, the advisor added, “I would like to thank again my Chinese friends who helped Pakistan to launch a vaccination campaign in a few months. They still stand by us today and continue to make vaccine delivery possible,"

It may be recalled that in a conversation with a private TV channel yesterday, Dr Sultan had said that 800,000 people over the age of 60 had registered for the vaccine across the country, out of which 250,000 had been given the first dose of the vaccine.

He said that the highest number of 490,000 in Punjab, 138,000 in Sindh, 94,000 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 4,500 in Balochistan, 42,000 in Islamabad, 20,000 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. 11,000 people have registered.

Earlier, The head of the National Command and Operation Centre, Asad Umar on Tuesday announced that Pakistan will be receiving the first batch of CanSino vaccine.

We will be getting bulk vaccine by mid april from cansino from which 3 million vaccine doses can be made. The bulk vaccine recieved will be formulated, sterilized and packed in Pakistan. For this purpose special equipment has been procured and manpower is being trained

— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) March 30, 2021

Asad Umer turned to Twitter and wrote, “We will be getting the bulk vaccine by mid-April from cansino from which 3 million vaccine doses can be made”.

First batch of cansino vaccine procured being recieved today. This is the vaccine in which Pakistan participated in phase 3 trials, which was the first time ever that Pakistan had done so for any vaccine.

— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) March 30, 2021

“The bulk vaccine received will be formulated, sterilized and packed in Pakistan. For this purpose special equipment has been procured and manpower is being trained,” he added.

He further added that “First batch of cansino vaccine procured being received today. This is the vaccine in which Pakistan participated in phase 3 trials, which was the first time ever that Pakistan had done so for any vaccine”.