Daily Times

BEIJING: A special plane of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) PK-6853 airlifted two million doses of Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine from the Beijing Capital International Airport to Islamabad on Tuesday.

This special flight of the national flag carrier in addition to the special flight PK-6852 which transported two million doses of the Sinovac vaccine from China to Pakistan in last month, Qadir Bux Sangi, PIA Country Manager for China.

According to official sources, around two million more Chinese vaccines will be brought to Pakistan from China in the next few days.

Up to 700, 000 doses of the Chinese vaccine Sinopharm had already arrived in Pakistan from China while another 1.3 million doses of the same vaccine are expected to reach the country very soon.

Pakistan has been using mainly Chinese vaccines namely Sinopharm and Sinovac, although others are also available.

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

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

The government has run a massive vaccination drive across the country to achieve the target of providing 70 million doses of vaccines aimed at fighting the pandemic.

It may be mentioned that 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.

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 it is available for people aged over 18 years.

Islamabad received the first vaccine consignment after a military aircraft transported it from Beijing on February 01, this year.