Pakistan orders over a million COVID-19 vaccines from China

Pakistan has placed orders from two Chinese companies for the purchase of 1,060,000 coronavirus vaccines, said Dr. Faisal Sultan, Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan for National Health,

“Our Covid vaccine drive continues. Orders placed for purchase of Covid vaccines (Sinopharm, 1 million doses; CanSino, 60K doses),” said Sultan in a statement. He informed that the orders are expected to arrive within days. “Several million additional doses in the pipeline for April,” he added.

Regarding the supply of the COVID-19 vaccine, Dr. Sultan informed that he had a discussion with Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).

“I had a very productive conversation last evening with Dr. Tedros on Covid vaccine supply chain especially via GAVI to maintain an adequate and consistent availability, across the world. Grateful to him for his support and assurance,” said Dr. Sultan.

In a separate statement, Tedros said WHO is working with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to speed up the Emergency Use Listing process.

“I reassured Special Assistant Faisal Sultan that WHO is working with COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers to speed up the Emergency Use Listing process so that COVAX can expand its portfolio and deliver doses quicker and in larger quantities,” he said.

Currently, Pakistan is vaccinating the country’s healthcare workers and people over the age of 60 after launching the vaccination drive on February 2nd. Pakistan is using the Sinopharm vaccine developed by state-run China National Pharmaceutical Group, which has shown to be 79 percent effective.