Asad Umar, federal minister for planning, development, reforms and special initiatives, said on Saturday that Pakistan would receive “up to 17 million doses of AstraZeneca in 1st half 2021”.

Asad took to Twitter on Saturday evening to share this “good news”. He tweeted, “Good news on Covid vaccine front. Received letter from Covax of indicative supply of up to 17 million doses of AstraZeneca in 1st half 2021. About 6 million will be received by March with delivery starting in Feb. We signed with Covax nearly 8 months back to ensure availability.” 

https://twitter.com/Asad_Umar/status/1355531498871549958

A Pakistan Air Force (PAF) plane will depart for China on Sunday (tomorrow) to bring the first batch of Covid-19 vaccine comprising five hundred thousand doses. The doses will be transported from Beijing in a special Chinese container. 

The National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) on Saturday was apprised by authorities concerned that all necessary measures had been put in place for Covid-19 vaccine storage in Islamabad after its import from China. 

The first shipment of a Chinese Covid-19 vaccine is expected to arrive by January 31 (Sunday) in Pakistan. During Saturday’s session, the forum deliberated about vaccine administration strategy and measures across Pakistan and particularly the movement of the initial tranche of vaccine for which a special plane would fly to China on Sunday for transportation. 

The vaccine would be moved to federating units of Sindh and Balochistan through the air. Earlier, on January 27, it was reported that NCOC had developed a vaccination plan keeping in view the best global principles and health guidelines. 

On January 28, the federal government gave the green light for three Covid-19 vaccines including Russia’s Sputnik-V, China’s Sinopharm and UK’s Oxford-AstraZeneca for emergency use in the country for which a step-by-step guide was also issued.