(Karachi) China has donated a COVID-19 vaccine for Pakistan’s Armed Forces, a statement issued by Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) stated on Monday. The Pakistan Army is the first foreign military to receive vaccine assistance from China.

As per the military’s media wing, the army has decided to contribute the vaccine to the national vaccination drive so it can be administered to frontline healthcare workers across Pakistan, who are “real heroes fighting against pandemic and saving precious lives.”

“This is keeping with the armed forces’ traditional spirit of nation comes first, always and every time,” the ISPR said. The army extended its “deepest gratitude” to China for this “magnanimous donation” during testing times, it added.

On February 2, the first batch of 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine arrived in Pakistan as a gift from China to be used to inoculate the frontline health workers to protect them from COVID-19 at initial stage.

Foreign Minister Qureshi said that the vaccine had arrived right at the time when Pakistan was grappling with the second wave of COVID-19. He said that Pakistan-China cooperation in fighting the pandemic, since its outbreak, has been exemplary.

Earlier, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Health Services, Dr Faisal Sultan said the Chinese made Covid-19 vaccine, Sinopharm, is not recommended for the people above 60 years of age.

He said that based on the findings of expert committee’s preliminary analysis of Sinopharm data, the government has recommended the vaccine be licensed for people aged 18-60, at this stage.