ISLAMABAD: Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Tuesday announced China would donate additional shots of coronavirus vaccine to Pakistan by March 31.
The assurance came during a telephone call between Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Yi wherein the former sought more Chinese vaccines to fight the disease.
Yi said that over a hundred countries had approached China for the shots but the country would prioritise the fulfillment of Pakistan’s needs, considering the ideal bilateral ties between the two nations.
According to a Foreign Office (FO) statement, Qureshi thanked Beijing for promising 1.5 million doses of Chinese vaccines for Pakistan, saying it had been pivotal to protecting lives. So far, Pakistan has received 1 million of those doses.
He also thanked Chinese leadership for wishing Prime Minister Imran Khan a speedy recovery from Covid-19. He tested positive over the weekend.
The conversation encompassed the latest Covid-19 situation as well as matters of mutual interests, the statement said.
The call comes days after Pakistan received a second Chinese donation of 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine, bringing the country’s total supply to 1 million shots.
“These doses will ensure a smooth continuation of our vaccine drive, currently underway for senior citizens,” Minister of State for Health Dr Faisal Sultan said.
Qureshi further said that Chinese assistance to the world, particularly Pakistan, during the challenging situation of the pandemic was exemplary.
Qureshi further told Yi that Pakistan was taking all precautionary measures including the smart lockdown in line with the vision of Prime Minister Imran.
Both the leaders had a detailed discussion on bilateral ties and multiple cooperation besides agreeing to keep up the high-level contacts between the two countries.
Separately, Federal Minister for Planning Asad Umar, speaking to Reuters, said that Pakistan will receive its first purchase of over one million doses of Chinese Sinopharm and CanSino Covid-19 vaccines by the end of March.
This will be the first consignment of Covid-19 vaccines the government has purchased from any manufacturer.
“We have purchased one million and 60,000 doses of Sinopharm and CanSino vaccines,” Umar said. “We will be receiving the consignment before the end of March.”
He said that the government was in talks with the same companies to purchase a further 7 million doses of the vaccines.
Meanwhile, Punjab Health Minister Dr Yasmin Rashid said that Pakistan would receive seven million more doses of the coronavirus vaccine by mid-April from China.
“On March 28, another 1 million SinoPharm corona vaccines will arrive, and by April 15, 6 million vaccines from Sinopharm or CansinoBio will arrive,” Dr Yasmin Rashid said on Twitter, referring to two Chinese vaccines cleared for emergency use in the country.
She said the Punjab government has allocated $150 million to procure coronavirus vaccines and would buy 2.5 million jabs from its own resources.
China’s Sinopharm and CansinoBio, Russia’s Sputnik-V and the British AstraZeneca vaccines are approved for emergency use in Pakistan, whose government has not secured any vaccine from manufacturing companies yet and is relying so far on donations.
Last week, a private pharmaceutical company, AGP Limited, imported the first shipment of 50,000 doses of the Russian vaccine to Pakistan but they are in cold storage until the government can set a price cap for privately imported jabs to be used for commercial sale.
