Pakistan receives 4.2 million Chinese COVID-19 vaccines in a single day

Islamabad: Pakistan has received 4.2 million COVID-19 Sinopharm and Sinovac vaccines from China in a single day to boost the country’s fight against the deadly virus.

A special plane of Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) airlifted the batch of 1.2 million doses of Sinopharm vaccine after three million doses of Sinovac landed here earlier in the day to bring the total to 4.2 million vaccines in a single day.

The National Institute of Health (NIH) said vaccines received by the country included three million doses of Sinovac and 1.2 million jabs of Sinopharm. The Institute said these doses had been purchased from China.

Pakistan has received 10.3 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines from China in the ongoing month that included 5.5 million jabs of Sinovac and 4.8 million doses of Sinopharm.

Separately, on Monday, a consignment of three million doses of coronavirus vaccine was received at the Islamabad Airport sent through the COVAX arrangement, the United Nations vaccine-sharing mechanism.

The COVID-19 has claimed 39 more lives across Pakistan in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll from the disease to 23,087.

According to the latest National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) updates, as many as 3,262 new cases of COVID-19 emerged when 49,412 samples were tested.

The positivity rate of infections was recorded at 6.6 percent, it said. Pakistan’s caseload climbed to 1,011,708 after 3,262 new infections were detected. The number of active cases currently stands at 59,899.