BEIJING, China has always attached great importance to Pakistan’s demand for vaccines to help fight Covid-19 pandemic and carried out close cooperation with that country, Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said on Thursday.
“Chinese vaccines manufacturers have cooperated with Pakistan in the development and production of vaccines from very beginning and will continue to export vaccines to Pakistan,” he said in a statement issued here.
He said that China and Pakistan are all weather strategic cooperative partners, adding, “Since the outbreak of Covid-19, China and Pakistan have worked together to help each other and achieve positive results.”
The spokesperson informed that in addition, the Chinese government has so far provided three batches of vaccines aid to Pakistan and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has also provided two batches of aid to Pakistan army.
“The two countries are in close communication on the delivery of a new batch of vaccine aid to Pakistan as soon as possible,”he added.
Zhao Lijian said that in the face of common enemy of mankind, the international community should work together to meet the challenge.
“China is ready to deepen cooperation with Pakistan on vaccine and provide support within its capacity to fight the epidemic,” he added.
It may be mentioned here that Pakistan has so far received more than 13 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines comprising Sinopharm, Sinovac and CanSino procured from China including others through COVAX programme.
The government launched a nationwide vaccination drive with around a million doses of Sinopharm vaccine donated by China, starting with older people and frontline healthcare workers, in March. The drive began with a focus on the oldest people in the community, generally over the age of 80, and worked its way down.
Initially, the government had to deal with vaccination hesitancy and a shortage of vaccine supplies and had limited shots for people aged 30 or over.
The health authorities have administered 5.3 million vaccine doses with supplies from three Chinese companies – Sinopharm, Sinovac and CanSinbio – and the Oxford-AstraZeneca shots.
Islamabad received the first COVID-19 vaccine consignment after a military aircraft transported it from Beijing on February 01, this year.
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