(Karachi) Special Assistant to Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr Faisal Sultan has said that the government will provide COVID-19 vaccine free of cost to general public, Radio Pakistan reported on Wednesday.

Speaking during an online workshop pertaining to Health, Faisal said China has gifted half million doses of the vaccine to Pakistan, which will be made available to the people free of cost.

The SAPM said that in first phase, frontline health workers will be vaccinated, while in the second phase, senior citizens will be administered with the anti-pandemic medicine. He said so far 400,000 health workers have been registered for vaccination.

Dr Faisal Sultan stressed the need for adhering to precautionary measures to prevent spread of the Covid-19 pandemic. He urged the media to play its due role in creating awareness in this regard.

Meanwhile, the Sindh government has already earmarked funds to the tune of Rs1.5 billion for the vaccine procurement and is in contact with Chinese, British and Russian firms to purchase as many doses of Covid-19 jabs as possible.

The first batch of the vaccine is expected to reach Karachi on February 1.

Pakistan, which is seeing rising numbers of coronavirus infections, said its vaccines would be procured from multiple sources. Approval has been given to get more than a million doses of vaccine from China.

Pakistan has increased its funds allocated for purchasing Covid-19 vaccine to $250 million and signed non-disclosure agreements with various multinational companies. Under the agreement, the recipient country will not make details of the vaccine public.

Meanwhile, Drap has authorised Oxford University-AstraZeneca, Russia's Sputnik V and Chinese state-owned firm Sinopharm’s Covid-19 vaccines for emergency use.