Friday, March 29, 2024

0.5 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine arrives in Pakistan

0.5 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine arrives in Pakistan
March 17, 2021

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – Third batch of 0.5 million doses of Chinese Sinopharm vaccine has arrived in Pakistan on Wednesday.

According to details, a special plane arrived at Islamabad’s Nur Khan airbase from China carrying half a million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine. The vaccine batch, which consists of 500,000 doses has been shifted to warehouse. The vaccine company Sinopharm will provide the jabs to Pakistan in phases.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan formally received the 0.5 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine.

The jabs were to arrive in the country yesterday but got delayed due to some reasons, the sources said. The Chinese vaccine will be shifted to the Expanded Programme on Immunisation’s (EPI) warehouse from where it will be moved to vaccination centres across the country.

The sources said Pakistan purchased the 0.5 million doses from the Chinese firm at a discounted rate. The firm will provide more jabs in phases. The National Institute of Health (NIH) already has an approval for emergency use of the Chinese vaccine.

The sources said that the frontline health workers and elderly people will get inoculated on priority basis.