Daily Times

Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has announced that Pakistan would use the Moderna vaccine to inoculate its citizens who want to go abroad.

Asad said this in a tweet on Saturday, as certain countries do not accept people who have benefitted from Covid-19 shots manufactured in China.

Pakistan received a batch of 2.5 million doses of Moderna vaccine on Friday that was donated by the United States in partnership with the COVAX global vaccine initiative and UNICEF. Umar thanked US President Joe Biden for his “progressive policy” since the American leader promised to deliver 80 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine to the rest of the world by the end of June.

Pakistani expatriate workers have been protesting against the shortage of vaccines approved by various Middle Eastern states in their country. In a recent incident, many of them stormed a mass vaccination centre in Islamabad in a bid to get Pfizer or AstraZeneca shots to travel abroad. Meanwhile, two million more doses of China’s Sinovac vaccine will be flown in from China on July 5, according to sources. They said the consignment will reach Islamabad on board a Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight. The government purchased the two million shots, the sources said, and a plan for distribution of the vaccine to all federating units has been chalked out.