Pakistan to receive 1.3mn doses of Sinopharm vaccine from China today

• Pakistan receives 700,000 Sinopharm vaccine doses. 
• Two million doses each of Sinovac and Sinopharm to arrive in Pakistan through various planes from China in next four days. 
• Pakistan expects more doses of UK's AstraZeneca vaccine to arrive in country this month as well. 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has received 700,000 doses of the Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine from China, with another 1.3mn doses of the same vaccine expected to arrive in the country today (Sunday). 

Sources in the Ministry of Health informed Geo News that in the next four days, 2mn doses each of Sinovac and Sinopharm will arrive in Pakistan through various planes from China. 

Sources said 2mn doses of the Sinovac vaccine will be brought to Pakistan from China on Monday and Tuesday. 

Pakistan is also expecting more doses of the UK vaccine AstraZeneca to arrive in the country. 

Pakistan receives 2mn doses of Sinovac from China

On June 22, a special flight of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) PK-6852 airlifted two million doses of Sinovac COVID-19 vaccine from the Beijing Capital International Airport to Islamabad.

Sources had said around three million more doses of COVID-19 will be transported to Pakistan in the next 10 days.

The government aims at inoculating 70 million people by year's end.

Pakistani health authorities had launched a nationwide vaccination drive with around a million doses of Sinopharm vaccine donated by China, starting with older people and frontline healthcare workers, in March.

Islamabad received the first COVID-19 vaccine consignment after a military aircraft transported it from Beijing on February 1, this year.

The drive began with a focus on the oldest people in the community, generally over the age of 80 and worked its way down.

Initially, the government had to deal with vaccination hesitancy and a shortage of vaccine supplies and had limited shots for people aged 30 or over.

Now vaccines are available for people aged over 18 years.

Gap between shots for Chinese vaccines increased

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) had earlier revised the guidelines for two-dose Chinese vaccines, increasing the gap between the doses to six weeks.

The two-dose SinoVac and Sinopharm vaccines were initially administered with a four-week gap which has now been increased to six weeks.

The Sindh government had said that those citizens who had already received one dose of Sinopharm, will still get their second dose after the earlier set 21-day gap. Similarly, those having received one dose of Sinovac, will get their second dose after four weeks, as was the earlier practice.

The provincial health department said that the new rule, of a six-week gap, applies to those who will get inoculated for the first time today onwards.