BEIJING: Special aircraft of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) carrying a consignment of one million jabs of Covid-19 vaccine from China left for Pakistan on Sunday as the country’s delicate health system is bracing for an imminent peak of coronavirus cases.
“Three PIA Boeing 777 aircraft have brought one million doses. The aircraft had left for China on Saturday,” Arab News quoted PIA spokesperson Abdullah Niazi as saying.
3 special #PIA B777s have arrived at #Beijing to urgently uplift a million #COVID19 vaccines to fight the surge in pandemic in the country. Operating on advise of @OfficialNcoc & @ndmapk, PIA will carry on performing its national duties in time of need. #PakistanZindabad pic.twitter.com/2NBBJYNnqA
— PIA (@Official_PIA) April 24, 2021
“The first two planes returned in early hours of the day,” he said, adding the third plane is expected to land in Islamabad in the late afternoon.
Qadir Bux Sangi, PIA country manager in China, told APP the national flag carrier will also airlift an additional two million doses of the vaccine on April 29.
He said two special aircraft and a regular PIA flight was utilised to airlift the doses from China.
Government officials, as well as the health authorities, believe, and have repeatedly warned, that the already-stretched health system is unable to handle the lurking influx of Covid-19 patients.
In the cities of Karachi and Lahore, hospitals are already struggling because of a sharp increase in Covid-19 patients in recent days.
The government launched the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination for the general public, starting with older people, in March. The drive began with a focus on the oldest people in the community, generally over the age of 80.
The vaccination of people aged 50 and above began on April 21. The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) had started a registration drive for people in the age group on March 30.
Earlier this week, Minister of State for Health Dr Faisal Sultan announced that by the end of June, the government would have a stock of 17 million coronavirus vaccine jabs but stopped short of identifying the producer.
“The challenge [for the government] is to deploy and use them. The number of people who have registered is in the hundreds of thousands, not millions, yet we need to vaccinate 40 to 50 million by the end of this year,” he said in an interview.
When asked, the minister rejected the criticism that Pakistan has not been as proactive in obtaining the shots compared to its regional neighbours.
“Until about a week ago, there were about 65 countries where vaccination rollouts had begun and 130 have yet to begin. Pakistan began its programme 24 days ago. So, we cannot say we began late […],” he said.
“[…] you cannot compare us to countries like the US, a 150-year old democracy that put a man on the moon in 1969.”
According to a senior Chinese official, the vaccine cooperation between Pakistan and China reflects the mutual assistance understanding between the two nations as all-weather strategic and cooperative partners.
