ISLAMABAD – Pakistan on Wednesday received another batch of COVID-19 vaccine as a gift from its longtime ally China.
A special plane carrying half a million doses of the vaccine developed by China’s Sinopharm landed at the Nur Khan Airbase.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan expressing his views on the occasion said that China has always supported Pakistan in difficult times. He thanked the Chinese government for sending vaccines as gift.
On February 1, Pakistan had received the first tranche of COVID-19 vaccine, Sinopharm, from Beijing.
A Pakistan military aircraft had brought back the country’s first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines from China.
China’s envoy in Islamabad formally handed over the 500,000 doses of vaccine, enabling Pakistan to launch its vaccination drive.
On Feb 2, Prime Minister Imran Khan had launched the vaccination drive and the frontline healthcare workers were administered vaccine in the first phase.
COVID-19 Situation in Pakistan
At least 61 people lost their lives due to the novel coronavirus infection while 2,351 fresh cases have reported in the last 24 hours, National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said Wednesday.
According to the latest figures, the death toll has surged to 13,656 while the number of confirmed cases stands at 612,315.
In the past 24 hours, as many as 2,853 patients have recovered from the novel virus while the total recoveries stand at 575,867. The total count of active cases is 22,792.
At least 261,823 coronavirus cases have been confirmed in Sindh, 189,362 in Punjab 76,819 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, 48,938 in Islamabad, 19,247 in Balochistan, 11,161 in Azad Kashmir, and 4,965 in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Moreover, 5,853 individuals have lost their lives to the epidemic in Punjab 4,468 in Sindh, 2,179 in KP, 529 in Islamabad, 322 in Azad Kashmir, 202 in Balochistan, and 103 in Gilgit Baltistan.
A total of 38,799 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours while 9,603,865 samples have been tested so far.
