Pakistan will purchase 1.2 million doses of Chinese homegrown COVID-19 vaccine, Minister for Science and Technology Fawad Chaudhry said on Thursday.

According to the details, science minister announced on Twitter that “The Cabinet Committee has decided to initially purchase 1.2 million doses of the vaccine from the Chinese company Sinopharm, which will be provided free of cost to frontline workers in the first quarter of 2021.”

Fawad Chaudhry added that the private sector can also import the vaccine approved internationally.

کابینہ کمیٹی نے فیصلہ کیا ہے کہ ابتدائ طور پر چین کی کمپنی سائنوفارم سے ویکسین کی بارہ لاکھ Doses خریدی جائیں گی جو 2021 کی پہلی سہ ماہی میں فرنٹ لائن ورکرز کو مفت مہیا کی جائیں گی، پرائیویٹ سیکٹر اگر کوئ اور بینالاقوامی طور پر منظور شدہ ویکسین امپورٹ کرنا چاہےتو وہ بھی کرسکتا ہے

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— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) December 31, 2020

China approved a COVID-19 vaccine developed by an affiliate of state-backed pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm on Thursday, its first approved shot for general public use.

According to media reports, the approval comes a day after Sinopharm said its vaccine is 79.34% effective, citing interim analysis of Phase 3 clinical trials.

Pakistan Coronavirus

On the other hand, the total count of novel coronavirus active cases toll in Pakistan dropped to 34,537 after nearly 5,000 patients recovered in the past 24 hours.

According to the NCOC, 4,960 patients have recovered from the virus in a day bringing the national recovery toll to 435,073.

The pandemic claimed 58 more lives and infected 2,475 more people during the last 24 hours.

After the new reported deaths and infections, the national death tally hit 10,105 with 479,715 confirmed cases.

As reported, 2206 patients are in critical condition. According to NCOC, a total of 39,695 tests were conducted across the country during this period. Overall 435,073 people have recovered from the deadly disease so far while 6,696,068 samples have been tested thus far.

World Coronavirus Situation

The number of Coronavirus cases across the world has reached 83,066,659 while the pandemic has claimed 1,812,188 lives so far. As many as 58,868,485 patients have recovered from the disease across the world.