First Pakistani citizen receives Sinopharm vaccine in Shanghai

Zahid Iqbal, who turns 44 next month, has become the first Pakistani in China to receive the Sinopharm Covid-19 vaccine.

After receiving his second dose on January 10, Zahid told the China Economic Net that he felt excited and was satisfied that the Chinese company had developed the vaccine.

China is also working to provide the vaccine to Pakistan in a couple of weeks.

Zahid originally hails from Chichawatni, Sahiwal in Pakistan, and has been working as the head of Curriculum and Sciences in an international school of Shanghai for the last 18 years.

Sharing his vaccination experience, he said, "at first, the news of being vaccinated was scary but after some research I decided to go for it."

When Zahid arrived at the vaccination centre, he was surprised to see a large number of people, and the way the administration had organised the centre. The queue was long, but moved forward smoothly, he said.

“After going through different steps, I got vaccinated which felt very normal," he stated.

"We were told to fill a medical consent form in case of any reactions like muscular pain, fatigue, or fever in a day or two after being vaccinated," he further informed.

Zahid stated that he and his colleague had to stay under observation for 30 minutes in case there was any adverse reaction of the vaccination.

After being administered the first shot, the second shot was administered in the same way, he said. "The second time there were more people because Shanghai is a big city and the administration of the city was facilitating vaccines to more and more people like hospital staff, doctors, nurses, and schoolteachers," he added.

 Zahid lauded the Chinese government's prevention and control tactics of the pandemic, saying the country handled the crisis "smoothly".

He further encouraged people to get themselves vaccinated, asking them to not fall for any conspiracy theories regarding it.

Zahid Iqbal is one among hundreds of thousands who have been vaccinated successfully. China is also expected to accelerate its vaccination drive in the coming months.

The Chinese vaccine will also be safeguarding millions in other parts of the world in the near future.