1.1m Sinopharm jabs due early next month

The first batch of Covid-19 jabs from the Chinese vaccine manufacturing company, Sinopharm, would arrive in Pakistan in the first week of February, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Health Dr Faisal Sultan told Anadolu Agency on Monday.

Dr Sultan, the de facto health minister of the country, said that the “first instalment of 1.1 million doses for about 500,000 people” will be received from Sinopharm. Sultan had told Anadolu Agency earlier that frontline workers and senior citizens would be inoculated first.

Immunisation has already begun in EU countries, the US, the UK, and many Gulf states.

The vaccines approved so far include the ones produced by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna. Pakistan is expected to launch the vaccination drive in the second quarter of this year.