ISLAMABAD/BEIJING: The Pakistan Army donated a batch of Chinese coronavirus jabs — delivered for the troops on Sunday by the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the armed forces of China — to the national vaccination drive, the chief military spokesperson said Monday.
In a statement, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Babar Iftikhar said the PLA donated an undisclosed number of doses, making Pakistan the first foreign military to receive vaccine assistance from China.
“However, keeping with the Pakistan armed forces’ traditional spirit of ‘nation comes first, always and every time’ it has been decided to contribute the complete donation to the national vaccination drive [for] frontline healthcare workers across Pakistan who are the real heroes fighting against the pandemic and saving precious lives,” the statement said.
“Pakistan’s armed forces extend their deepest gratitude to PLA and the People’s Republic of China for this magnanimous donation during testing times,” it added.
Responding to the development, Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar, who also heads the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the lauded military’s decision to donate the vaccines.
Great decision by the military leadership to hand over the consignment of vaccines sent by the peoples liberation army of china as donation to Pakistani miltary, consistent with govt decision of first priority to health care workers.
— Asad Umar (@Asad_Umar) February 8, 2021
The move, he said, was in line with the government’s decision of giving first priority to the frontline healthcare workers.
The Global Times reported the vaccine shots were produced by Chinese state-owned drug producer Sinopharm.
Pakistan began rolling out the anti-coronavirus jabs last Wednesday, a day after receiving half a million shots of the Sinopharm vaccine.
As per the roll-out plan, the vaccine will first be made available to more than 400,000 doctors and frontline healthcare workers, teachers and social workers because they run the highest risk of exposure to the contagious disease.
After that, the shots will be provided to citizens over the age of 65, who generally face a higher mortality risk from the virus.
Pakistan received its first tranche of the Sinopharm jabs, given by China as a “gift”, on Tuesday last. The shipment marked the first shots to be imported into the country where more than 549,032 cases of the disease have been reported since the outbreak in February last.
In addition, the government is due to receive a further 1.1 million doses of the Sinopharm vaccine by the end of this month, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had announced late last month.
Separately, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan announced on Saturday that the government has secured 17 million doses of AstraZeneca’s vaccine through the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) COVAX initiative. Of these, he had said, about seven million doses will be available in the first quarter of the year and the rest by the end of 2021.
Stunts like these won’t win any support to this institution. Khan was imposed on us.
Yes so you can go back to having your pockets raided by zardari and nawaz. Lol