PIA airlifts fresh batch of 15 million Sinovac doses from China

BEIJING: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) has transported fresh consignments of 15 million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines by five special flights from the Capital International Airport Beijing to Islamabad.

PIA Country Manager Qadir Bux Sangi on Wednesday said that the national flag carrier launched special flights PAK-6852, PAK-6853, PK-6856, PK-6857, and PK-6858, respectively, and airlifted fresh consignments of Sinovac vaccine from December 10 to December 15.

He told APP that a PIA special flight PK-6858 carrying three million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccines left the Chinese capital for Islamabad.

Last week, Pakistan Ambassador to China Moinul Haque had thanked China for standing by Pakistan during testing times, including the fight against COVID-19.

"The vaccine campaign which is going [on] in Pakistan, the 90% of it is being done through vaccines provided by China," he said.

In a recent statement, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson remarked that the China-Pakistan joint fight against the COVID-19 pandemic had achieved positive progress and set a good example for the world.

"Since the outbreak of COVID-19, our two countries have stood together in mutual assistance," he said in response to a question asked by APP.

He said that the Chinese side always attached high importance to Pakistan’s needs on vaccines and "we have engaged in close cooperation".

The spokesperson said that China had provided strong support to Pakistan.

It is pertinent to mention, just a few days ago, 200,000 doses of vaccines from the China Red Cross Society were transported to Islamabad.

He added that the Chinese were already engaging in joint production of vaccines in Pakistan and it would stand together with Pakistan to help it defeat the virus.

In an earlier statement, the spokesperson remarked that since the outbreak, China and Pakistan had been supporting each other. "When China was in the middle of the anti-epidemic war, Pakistan was among the first to help China," he added.

In the same way, he said, the Chinese side had been helping and assisting Pakistan with testing agents, masks protective suits and vaccines.

"These were concrete steps illustrating iron brother relationship between the two countries."

As per the latest figures, Pakistan had vaccinated 25% of its total population and 37% of its eligible population against the novel coronavirus.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan was the first country in the world, which receive a coronavirus vaccine from China as a donation.

On February 1, 2020, the first batch of 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccines donated by the Chinese government arrived by a special plane in Islamabad.

Later, on February 8, China's People’s Liberation Army (PLA) delivered a batch of COVID-19 vaccines to the Pakistan armed forces at the latter’s request.

SOURCE: APP