BEIJING: Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight No.6852 carrying a batch of one million doses of Sinovac vaccine left the Beijing Capital International Airport here on Sunday for Islamabad as the country is battling to control the third wave of Covid-19 pandemic.

“More flights of the national carrier are expected to airlift more consignments of Sinovac vaccines procured from China between May 13-15 and by the end of May”, Qadir Bux Sangi, PIA Country Manager for China told APP.

According to official sources, Pakistan has so far received over 10 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines procured from China including others through COVAX programme.

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC) has announced that so far 10.19 million doses of different Covid-19 vaccines comprising of Sinopharm, Sinovac and CanSino were received by the country.

It informed that 1.23 million doses of Astrazenca Covid vaccine were also received in the federal capital. However, this vaccine was procured through COVAX programme.

While elaborating the arrival of next tranches of the Covid-19 vaccines, the sources said that one million doses would be landing on May 13-15 while another 1.5 million doses are expected by the end of this month.

Currently, Pakistan is facing a third wave of COVID-19 and the positivity rate has seen a sharp rise, forcing the Pakistani authorities to continue tightening the anti-pandemic measures and facilitating the vaccination drive.

It is pertinent to mention here that the relevant Chinese authorities have pledged to continue uninterrupted supply of vaccine to help Pakistan defeat the fatal virus.

Pakistan began a vaccination drive in March with over a million doses of Sinopharm vaccines donated by China. Islamabad received first COVID-19 vaccine consignment after a military aircraft transported it from Beijing on February 1, this year.