To overcome the countrywide shortage of Covid-19 vaccines, the government of Pakistan had placed emergency orders. Hence, on Sunday, a special consignment of 1.55 million doses of anti-Covid vaccine Sinovac arrived at the Islamabad airport through a special PIA flight.
“China as a time-tested friend of Pakistan has taken special measures to ensure uninterrupted supply of vaccines to Pakistan.”
The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) announced in a statement.
Another consignment of two to three million doses of Chinese vaccine would reach the country this week, said the principal body governing the policies and implementation of the national Covid-19 efforts in the country.
“Measures are in place to transport these vaccines to all federating units according to their requirement.”
The statement read.
The PIA spokesperson said that flight number PK-6852 reached Islamabad on Sunday morning with the jabs. He added that the airline would bring two million more doses to the country on June 22.
After unloading half of the doses in Islamabad, the plane flew to Karachi airport in the afternoon, carrying over 700,000 doses handed over to the Sindh government.
Due to the shortage of jabs in the country, vaccination centers in major cities either suspend vaccination or slow down the process.
Authorities in Sindh have shut all vaccine centers for Sunday, whereas only a few centers were functioning in Punjab due to the ongoing jabs shortage.
Addressing a news conference in Karachi the other day, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah announced that there would be no vaccination on Sunday because of the vaccine paucity.
Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar, who heads the NCOC, wrote on Twitter that a “record” 2.3 million vaccine doses were administered in the last week.
He added that around 332,877 vaccines on average were administered daily in the last week.
“With 1.5 million vaccines arriving today and another almost five million in next 10 days, inshallah next week will be a new record. Well done Pakistan.”
Last week jun 12-18, more than 23 lakh vaccinations were done at a rate of 332,877 per day. This is the highest so far in any week. With 1.5 million vaccines arriving today and another almost 5 million in next 10 days, inshallah next week will be a new record. Well done Pakistan
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) June 20, 2021
A day earlier, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan said the government had placed emergency orders for supplies of the coronavirus vaccines. The fresh supplies would begin to reach the country from Sunday. He added that Pakistan would receive around seven million vaccine doses over the next 10 days, mainly from China.
“The situation will be normalized from Monday after the arrival of the fresh supplies,” Dr Faisal noted. “We still have 1 million doses in stock. But definitely, they are not enough to be distributed across the country.”
He went on to say.
