Pakistan to get 13 million doses of COVID-19 in next two months

Pakistan has purchased 13 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from China and expects to receive them in the next two months.

The Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Faisal Sultan confirmed that the vaccines were procured from Sinopharm, CanSinoBio (6185.HK) and Sinovac.

They will supplement around 2.4 million shots from the COVAX programme 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.”

Currently, Pakistan has recorded 17,680 COVID-19 deaths and a total of 815,711 cases.

The vaccination drive in Pakistan began in February with 1.2 million doses donated by China and was able to procure over 4 million doses from China in April.  The next plan is to vaccinate people aged 40 and over from the first week of May.

He also maintained that 2.4 mln jabs of the AstraZeneca vaccine part of the first tranche of 14 mln doses under the COVAX programme run by the World Health Organization and GAVI, would also be arriving and it would likely come from South Korea.

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