China to provide 0.5 million doses of COVID vaccine in Jan, 0.6 million in Feb: FM

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that China will provide half a million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this month.
Talking to the media persons on Thursday, the foreign minister said that the first cache of the vaccine is a grant from China to be provided to Pakistan free of cost as a goodwill gesture.
He said that Chinese foreign minister, in a telephonic conversation, said that Pakistan can airlift medicine. “Pakistan held fruitful talks with China with regard to obtaining the coronavirus vaccine,” he further said.
Qureshi said that he told his Chinese counterpart that Pakistan requires 1.1 million doses of the vaccine in view of its large population. He said that the Chinese side also promised to make available the required quantity of the medicine by February 2021. The foreign minister said that China has also agreed to manufacture the COVID-19 vaccine in Pakistan.
The foreign minister praised the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) for doing a “great job during the pandemic” and lauded the COVID-19 patients for their courage in the fight against the deadly virus. “Pakistan successfully fought the coronavirus [pandemic],” he added. – TLTP