A Pakistan Air Force plane has left for China to acquire 500,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine for free.
The government’s National Command and Operation Centre confirmed this Sunday. It said that China had announced free vaccines for Pakistan.
The vaccine doses are expected to reach Pakistan Monday. These are being provided as part of the first phase, and will be administered to health workers.
The containers, cold boxes and dry ice required for the transportation has been provided by the PAF. The vaccine will be stored in the main cold storage facility of the government’s Expanded Programme on Immunisation cell. It will be sent to provinces from there.
Offices have been established at provincial and district levels to facilitate provision of the vaccines.
Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar said Saturday that Pakistan will receive 17 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from COVAX in the first half of 2021.
Pakistan will get about 6 million vaccines by March. Their delivery will start in February.
In the second phase, he said, people above the age of 65 years will be inoculated by the end of February.
Registration to receive the doses will start soon, according to Umar.
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