LAHORE: The vaccination process in major cities of Punjab has resumed after several days of disruption due to a shortage of COVID-19 jabs.
According to the Lahore deputy commissioner, Sinovac and Sinopharm vaccines are available at the centers now. In other cities of Punjab, including Bahawalpur and Multan, vaccination started after the country received a shipment of the Sinovac vaccine from China.
However, the situation in Karachi has not improved yet as many centers are still closed and waiting for the vaccine.
On Sunday, a special Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) flight airlifted over 1.55 million doses of the SinoVac vaccine from China. According to the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the special consignment of the SinoVac vaccine was part of the planned contracted quantity purchased from China.
It added that another consignment of 2-3 million doses of Chinese vaccines would be reaching Pakistan in the next week followed by a continued supply of COVID vaccine tranches.
The NCOC said China has always extended help to Pakistan and has taken special measures to ensure an uninterrupted supply of vaccines to the country. However, measures are in place to transport these vaccines to all federating units according to their requirement.