ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is likely to receive the second tranche of the Chinese Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine within the next 24 hours.
Reports citing sources suggest Beijing will provide another half a million jabs of the vaccine.
Pakistan has asked China for another one million doses.
About 6 million doses will arrive by the end of March under the COVAX scheme, with the remainder due by mid-year, State Minister for Health Dr Faisal Sultan announced last week.
Meanwhile, all measures to procure the Russian Sputnik vaccine have also been finalised.
The sources in the ministry of national health service said the government okayed procurement of the Russian jabs for a limited period.
Seperately, Dr Faisal said that the country could get “in the range of tens of millions” of vaccine doses under an agreement with China’s CanSino Biologics.
The company’s Ad5-nCoV Covid-19 candidate is nearing completion of Phase III clinical trials in Pakistan, awaiting results likely to come in by mid-February, he said.
Pakistan has also been pledged 17 million doses of AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine under a global scheme to deliver coronavirus treatments to developing nations.
A countrywide vaccination drive started last week. Half a million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine are being used in the first phase.
Sindh has been provided 84,000 doses of the vaccine, Punjab 70,000, KP 65,000, and Balochistan 10,300 doses.
The government plans to cover the majority of the population for free, but private companies could also be allowed to import and sell vaccines.
