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ISLAMABAD: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) will fly a plane to Beijing to bring more than 500,000 doses of a coronavirus vaccine to Pakistan.
A spokesperson for the national flag carrier said a Boeing 777 plane will be used to transport the vaccine doses given by China. PIA CEO retired Air Marshal Arshad Malik has approved the aircraft to fly to the Chinese capital to airlift 0.5 million doses of COVID-19 doses gifted to the country by China.
Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi announced that China had promised to provide 500,000 doses of a coronavirus vaccine to Pakistan by January 31.
The foreign minister held a telephonic conversation with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi said that China has offered Pakistan to send an airplane and airlift the vaccine doses. He said China gifted half a million virus doses to Pakistan, thanking “friend” Beijing for its generosity.
Qureshi told his Chinese counterpart that Pakistan requires 1.1 million doses of the vaccine due to its large population, adding that the Chinese side also promised to make available the required quantity of the doses by the end of next month.
He said China has also agreed to manufacture the vaccine in Pakistan. China has played an instrumental role in Pakistan’s fight against COVID19 with technical assistance and medical expertise, he added.
The Drug Regulatory Authority of Pakistan (DRAP) on January 18 had authorised China’s Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use in Pakistan, making it the second vaccine to get local approval. Pakistan also granted allowed to use Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use
