Pakistan has received another batch of Oxford AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines comprising of 1.24 million doses.
A consignment containing 1.24 million AstraZeneca vaccine doses reached Islamabad on Saturday morning (today). Pakistan had received the first batch of the British vaccine on May 8th earlier this year.
The vaccine delivery is part of WHO’s COVAX programme which is a global vaccine-sharing initiative by the World Health Organization, the Gavi vaccine alliance, and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). The program intends to supply a total of 17.2 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Pakistan.
Currently, Pakistan is utilizing a total of six COVID-19 vaccines namely Sinopharm, CansinoBio, Sputnik V, Oxford AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Sinovac to carryout nation-wide inoculation drive against the novel virus.
Last month, the United States sent 2.5 million Moderna doses to Pakistan which were used on those who had to travel for work or study to countries that were only accepting certain vaccines.
A tranche of Pfizer and Chinese vaccines reached the country this month too.
AstraZeneca vaccines will be distributed to the provinces as per their needs and will primarily cater to people will weak immunity or who are suffering from chronic diseases. Whereas it will also facilitate Pakistanis wishing to travel abroad as it is widely accepted by western as well as gulf countries.
