Daily Times

BEIJING: As many as five special flights of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) have transported 15 million doses of Sinovac vaccines from China to Pakistan during the last five days.

The special flights – PAK-6857, PAK-6858, PK-6856, PK-6852, and PK-6853 took off from Capital International Airport, Beijing to Islamabad between October 29 to November 2 with around 15 million doses of Sinovac vaccine to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, PIA Country Manager, Qadir Bux Sangi told here on Tuesday.

He informed that the national flag carrier had so far airlifted over 100 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines. In a tweet, Pakistan Ambassador to China said that China had played a vital role in Pakistan’s vaccination campaign against the novel coronavirus and had so far provided the latter with 110 million doses of vaccines, making the backbone of Pakistan’s inoculation drive.

Pakistan was the first country in the world, which received a coronavirus vaccine from China as a donation. The first donation of Sinopharm vaccine was delivered to Pakistan in February 2021. Following the first batch, Pakistan has received millions of coronavirus vaccines from China.

Pakistan has so far received 130 million doses of corona vaccine. Of these doses, 100 million were purchased while five million were donated by China. Pakistan has received 25 million doses of the vaccine from Covax. According to official figures, over 70 million people have received at least one dose and 40 million are fully vaccinated in Pakistan. The target of vaccinating 70 million people was set for the year-end, however, it was achieved even two months ahead.