Pakistan receives second batch of Moderna, CanSino coronavirus vaccine consignments

ISLAMABAD, 26 July: The second batch of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine and a consignment of the CanSino vaccine reached Pakistan on Monday.

Three million doses of the Moderna vaccine have reached Islamabad, health ministry officials confirmed. The country has received the vaccine doses under the COVAX programme.

The first batch of 2.5 million Moderna vaccine doses were delivered by the US earlier this month.

This is the fifth batch of vaccines to be obtained under COVAX.

So far, Pakistan has received four consignments of various coronavirus vaccines under the COVAX programme apart from this recent one. They include shipments of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccine.

COVAX has pledged free COVID-19 vaccines for 20% of Pakistan’s population.

More than 200,000 doses of CanSino vaccine reach Pakistan

Another 200,000 vaccine doses of the CanSino vaccine, too, reached Pakistan, according to the spokesperson of the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).

The NDMA spokesperson said the vaccine doses have been handed over to the Ministry of Health.

Read this: PIA plane carrying 1.55 million vaccines from China

A special flight of PIA carrying 1.55 million doses of vaccines from China has reached at Islamabad airport, the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) said on Sunday. The shipment of Sinovac corona vaccine arrived in Islamabad onboard a special Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight, the NCOC stated.

The NCOC said that Pakistan has purchased the vaccine from China’s Sinovac and another two to three million doses of vaccine will reach Pakistan in the next week.“China has been a time-tested friend and it is taking measures to ensure an uninterrupted vaccine supply to Pakistan,” the NCOC said. The provinces and other federating units will be provided the vaccine according to their requirement, the NCOC stated. All preparations are complete to supply vaccine to the provinces, the NCOC further said.