First consignment of 0.5m coronavirus vaccines arrives in Islamabad

The first consignment of 0.5 million coronavirus vaccines from China arrived at Islamabad airport on board a special Pakistan Air Force (PAF) plane on Monday morning, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Special Assistant to Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Health Services Faisal Sultan received the Sinopharm vaccines at the airport.

Speaking to the media on the occasion, Dr Sultan said that initially the vaccine would be administered to the frontline health workers.

He praised the role of the NCOC, health workers and the provincial governments in the battle against the pandemic.

Sinopharm vaccine has reportedly 79 per cent efficacy rate against the Covid-19.

Earlier, on January 12, 2021, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar had disclosed that the government had placed an order to purchase 1.1 million doses of coronavirus vaccine.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad, Asad Umar had said the COVID-19 vaccine from China would come to Pakistan soon.

He said the decisions of the government to cope with the second wave of COVID-19 yielded positive results as the number of new cases, hospitalized patients, those on ventilators and deaths had started coming down after witnessing a peak in December 2020.

Asad Umar said by end of November, the NCOC decided to close down some selected sectors again to prevent the spread of the deadly pandemic.

By the start of December, he said the hospitals across the country were receiving the highest number of patients but later on the trend started declining. Similarly, he said in the second week of December, the number of those on oxygen was the highest and then in the third week COVID-19 patients on ventilators and deaths were peaked. After that, the trend started easing and now it is on the downward trajectory.