(Karachi) A special flight of PIA carrying 1.55 million doses of Covid vaccine from China has arrived in Islamabad, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said on Sunday.

The vaccine procurement is part of the planned contracted quantity purchased from China, it stated.

Amid shortage, Sindh decides to close vaccination centres on Sunday

The NCOC added that another 2 to 3 million doses of vaccine will reach in the next week.

“China has been a time-tested friend and it is taking measures to ensure an uninterrupted vaccine supply to Pakistan,” the NCOC said.

The provinces and other federating units will be provided the vaccine according to their requirement, the NCOC said.

Corona vaccination process halted in Lahore due to shortage

Pakistan is facing an extreme shortage of Covid-19 vaccines, compelling provinces to suspend the vaccination process today (Sunday).

Sindh and Punjab closed down many vaccination centers as supply halted. However, officials say that an agreement has been reached between Pakistan and Pfizer-BioNTech for the procurement of 13 million doses of Covid-19 mRNA vaccine for the country and first shipment is expected to reach Pakistan by the end of July 2021.

Similarly, Pakistan is in the final stages of procuring 10 million doses of Russian Sputnik V vaccine and its first shipment is likely to reach by the end of the current month or first week of July.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan also said the pressure on the country's coronavirus vaccine stock would ease beginning next week. Dr Sultan said 12.9 million cumulative vaccine doses have so far been administered in the country (including both partial and fully vaccinated people), with 226,000 inoculations on June 18, 266,000 on June 17, and 416,000 on June 16.

Planning Minister Asad Umar also said that 2.3 million Covid vaccinations were carried out from June 12 to 18, which is the highest in any week so far.