BEIJING: Zahid Iqbal has become the first Pakistani citizen in China to receive the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine.
Zahid, who turns 44 next month, received his second dose on January 10. He told a local media outlet that he felt excited and is satisfied that the Chinese company has developed this vaccine. Iqbal was born in Chichawatni, Sahiwal and has been working in an international school for the last 18 years.
Sharing his vaccination experience he said, “2020 was a very tough year for all of us, in one way or other all of us suffered, families of many of us got stuck back in Pakistan, and we stuck in China. And now we have entered 2021”.
“At the end of December, when we heard the news that we’re going to have the vaccination, it was a little bit scary. We had to decide on one or two days. I did some research myself and talked to friends and finally, I made up my mind that I should go for it. It’s going to be good for us,” he mentioned.
He further said that after entering his information and got his QR code. When he arrived at the vaccination center, he was very surprised to see a large number of people and the way the administration smoothly organized crowds.
He added that he was a little bit nervous in the beginning.. “After going through different steps for vaccination, I got vaccinated but didn’t feel any pain. It was normal.” He said everybody has gone through vaccination at an early age and it was the same as that.
“We were told to fill a consent form because there may be any reaction like muscular pain, fatigue, or fever in one or two days after vaccination,” said.
He said he didn’t have any adverse reaction and was told after vaccination to take a few extra precautions like not to eat fish or spicy food. Zahid said that he and his colleague had to stay in an observation area for 30 minutes to see any side effects of vaccination.
“After having the first one, the morale was pretty good, everybody felt confident,” he expressed. He added they had to go through the same procedure for the second dose.
“There were more people on the second time as Shanghai is a large city and the administration of the city was facilitating vaccines for hospital staff, doctors, nurses, and school teachers.”
Zahid Iqbal is one among hundreds of thousands who have been vaccinated successfully. China is going to accelerate vaccination in the coming months and will safeguard millions in other parts of the world in the near future.
