The US has announced to ship an additional 9.6 million doses of Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to Pakistan through the global vaccine sharing COVAX initiative.
The shipment will bring the total dose of the Covid-19 vaccine donated by the US to Pakistani to more than 25 million doses, according to a statement issued by the US embassy in Islamabad.
“The United States is proud to partner with Pakistan to inoculate Pakistanis’ arms with an effective and life-saving Pfizer vaccine. Pakistan has done a great job of distributing the donated vaccine,” Angela P. Aggeler, US's Chargé d’affaires for Pakistan said in a statement.
“This donation will just make it in time for young Pakistanis over the age of 12 to get their first job.”
While Pakistan's vaccination drive has mainly relied on Chinese vaccines, donations through the COVAX initiative have helped the country in overcoming the shortage of Western-developed anti-coronavirus injections, including the ones made in the US.
“These Pfizer vaccines are part of the 500 million Pfizer doses that the United States purchased this summer and will reach 92 countries around the world, including Pakistan, to serve as president. [Joe] Biden’s commitment to providing safe and effective vaccines worldwide and strengthening the global battle against pandemics, “said the US Embassy in a statement.
The coronavirus cases have steadily declined in Pakistan. On Friday, Pakistan reported 1,086 positive coronavirus cases at a positivity ratio of 2.03%.
The situation is a massive improvement from June/July when the number of daily cases had shot up to nearly 5,000 a day.
The country intends to vaccinate 70 million people by the end of this year and has also committed to spending $1.1 billion on procuring the Covid-19 vaccine to inoculate its people. Pakistan has been inoculating the citizens with CanSino, Sinopharm, SinoVac, AstraZeneca, Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
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