ISLAMABAD: Days after reports of vaccine shortage emerged, threatening to hamper the nationwide campaign, Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar on Sunday announced that a “record” more than 2.3 million vaccine doses were administered in the last week.
About 332,877 vaccines on average were administered daily in the last week, Umar, who also heads the National Command and Operation Centre, said.
“With 1.5 million vaccines arriving today and another almost 5 million in next 10 days, inshallah next week will be a new record. Well done Pakistan,” he tweeted.
Last week jun 12-18, more than 23 lakh vaccinations were done at a rate of 332,877 per day. This is the highest so far in any week. With 1.5 million vaccines arriving today and another almost 5 million in next 10 days, inshallah next week will be a new record. Well done Pakistan
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) June 20, 2021
Last week, Minister of State for National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan said the shortage is limited to busy vaccination centres and is only temporary. Officials, he had assured, were working on ensuring the supply of additional shots and the situation was expected to improve after June 20.
Today, a special flight of Pakistan International Airlines carrying 1.55 million doses of the Sinovac vaccine reached Islamabad from Beijing.
In a statement, the NCOC announced that the shipment was part of the “planned contracted quantity purchased from China”.
Measures had been taken to transport the doses to all provinces and federating units as per their requirements, the body said.
It further announced that another tranche of “two to three million” doses is expected to arrive from China next week, which would be followed by continuous supply.
“China, as a time-tested friend of Pakistan, has taken special measures to ensure the uninterrupted supply of vaccine to Pakistan,” it said.
Dr Sultan shared a timeline for the vaccine supplies on Saturday, saying that the pressure in the system including local or distribution issues would be eased by Monday or Tuesday.
The government launched a nationwide vaccination drive, 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.
Battling a third peak of the virus, the Health Department began the campaign with Chinese Sinopharm and CanSino jabs.
Private hospitals in major cities are using the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine that has been imported by a local pharmaceutical company.
Initially, the government had to deal with vaccination hesitancy and a shortage of vaccine supplies and had limited shots to people aged 30 or over.
But with purchases from China and allocations from the World Health Organisation and the GAVI Vaccine Alliance, the government has now secured more than 18 million doses and is keen to get them out into the population.
The health authorities have administered 12.9 million vaccine doses with supplies from three Chinese companies — Sinopharm, Sinovac and CanSinbio — and the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Pfizer-BioNTech shots.
