PIA airlifts 12m doses of Covid vaccine

The Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) special flights have airlifted a fresh batch of 12 million doses of anti-Covid vaccines from Beijing Capital International Airport to Islamabad.

"PIA special flights PK-6852, PK-6853, PK-6854 and PK-6856 transported 12 million doses of Sinovac vaccine procured from China for vaccination of people under government's ongoing prevention and control drive against Covid-19 pandemic," Qadir Bux Sangi, the PIA country manager for China, told APP on Sunday.

He said that under the able leadership of its Chief Executive Officer Arshad Malik, the national flag carrier had so far airlifted 57 million doses of anti-Covid vaccine through 47 special flights.

"Till now, PIA has brought around 17 million doses of Sinopharm and 40 million doses of Sinovac and CanSino vaccines from China to Pakistan," he added.

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It is worth mentioning that the government under its mass vaccination drive has set a target to vaccinate 75 million population by end of 2021.

So far, over 32 million vaccines have been administered with a maximum of 1.07 million doses in a day on August 02.Chinese vaccines namely Sinopharm, Sinovac and CanSino besides other vaccines are being used in the mass vaccination drive.

The health authorities launched the nationwide vaccination drive with around a million doses of Sinopharm vaccine donated by China, starting with older people and frontline healthcare workers, in March this year.

The drive began with a focus on the oldest people in the community, generally over the age of 80 but now the vaccine is being administered to the people aged over 18 years.

Islamabad received the first COVID-19 vaccine consignment after a military aircraft transported it from Beijing on February 01, this year.