“An order has been place through the Chinese foreign office and its embassy in Pakistan,” said Mandviwalla.
“There is no need [to follow] PPRA (Public Procurement Regulatory Authority) rules, the prime minister can just exempt vaccine procurement from PPRA rules,” said the deputy chairman.
"The last few turbulent trading sessions have all but wiped out what had been a strong start to the year," said Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor.
Johnson said UK's own regulator had established "that they think the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine is very good and efficacious, gives a high degree of protection".
The Foreign Minister said that the Senate Standing Committee lauded the efforts of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the acquisition of Covid-19 vaccine.
Once delivered, the vaccines must be administered by already overstretched medical workers. A Kyodo News survey showed about 80% of prefectural governments were concerned about having enough staff to give injections.
The Commission is demanding answers from British-Swedish group AstraZeneca and US company Pfizer about delays both have announced to their deliveries to the European Union.