ISLAMABAD – Pakistan has received another consignment of 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine gifted by China amid third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A Pakistan Air Force (PAF) special plane carrying the jabs landed at Islamabad’s Nur Khan Airbase on Saturday.
This is the eighth Covid-19 vaccine consignment that Pakistan has received from China, which has, previously, gifted 1.5 million doses to Islamabad.
On April 22, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said that Pakistan has received a tranche of procured 0.5 million doses of Chinese-based company SinoVac’s vaccine.
The NCOC said that Pakistan had purchased these doses as they were not part of the donation from China.
Earlier this month, the Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) had granted emergency authorisation to the SinoVac’s vaccine —CoronaVac.
This was the fifth coronavirus vaccine and the third Chinese vaccine allowed by Pakistan for emergency use.
Pakistan is already using China’s two-dose Sinopharm and single-dose Convidecia vaccine developed by the Cansino Biologicals.
The country has also approved the use of UK’s AstraZeneca and Russian Sputnik V vaccines.
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