ISLAMABAD, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Wednesday formally started the drive to administer China-donated Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccines to its frontline healthcare workers across the country, the National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said.
The vaccination drive was formally kicked off simultaneously in all the four provinces and federating units of the country where chief ministers, senior ministers and health officials witnessed the administration of the vaccine doses to a few members of frontline medical staff, representing their community.
Talking to the launching ceremony at the NCOC headquarters here, Special Assistant to the Pakistani Prime Minister on Health Faisal Sultan expressed his gratitude to China for helping Pakistan administer the vaccine to its frontline medical staff.
He said that the Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine has an impressive efficiency rate and it has been approved by multiple countries of the world, adding that it is completely safe to use and the medical staff will get a great benefit from it.
Talking about the vaccination plan of his country, he said that the Pakistani government will try to inoculate all the people who are eligible to receive the vaccine before the end of this year.
The China-donated vaccine will be administered to healthcare workers in the first phase whereas in the second phase Pakistan will procure vaccine to administer about 9.5 million citizens above the age of 65 years old, he said.
Talking to Xinhua at the sidelines of the ceremony, Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives Asad Umar, said that the Sinopharm vaccine is proving to be very effective in the countries which have started using it, and in Pakistan, the vaccine is being used for frontline medical staff.
He said that trials of CanSino Biologics COVID-19 vaccine were carried out in Pakistan, and they will procure a large number after it is finalized and marketed, adding that they are confident that the Chinese vaccines will be very "effective in helping reduce the risk to the people of Pakistan from this disease."
In the capital, the vaccine was administered to a head nurse of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences isolation unit Rizwana Yasmin, a molecular technologist at Shifa International Hospital Islamabad Fahad Mahmood, and a member of COVID-19 surveillance team at the District Health Office Islamabad Javed Iqbal, the NCOC said.
Talking to Xinhua after receiving the vaccine shot, Yasmin expressed her gratitude to China for helping her to get protected from COVID-19. "I would like to say thanks to China. China, like always, is with us in a very difficult situation."
In Sindh province, Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah, speaking at the vaccine administering ceremony, thanked the people and the government of China for their support to Pakistan at the moment of need.
Chief Ministers of Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab also attended the ceremonies in their respective provinces and expressed gratitude to the Chinese government for enabling immunizing the local people.
Noorullah Musa Khel, medical superintendent of Fatima Jinnah General and Chest Hospital in Balochistan's capital city Quetta, received the vaccine shot in the chief minister's office during the launching ceremony.
Talking to Xinhua, Khel said that he and other frontline staff were anxiously waiting to get the vaccine, and shortly after developing the vaccine, China came to Pakistan's help to meet its need to protect its frontline staff.
"We are very grateful to China for the gesture. The vaccine will not only protect the doctors, but will also give a positive impression to the community that the cure for the disease has arrived through the passage of friendship."
Muhammad Zubair, the focal person of vaccination in Lady Reading Hospital in the provincial capital Peshawar of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said that they have administered the vaccine doses to three people from the COVID-19 test's swab taking team at the launching ceremony.
"We are very grateful to the Chinese government for making the vaccine available to us quickly. We could not procure any vaccine yet, and China filled the void by giving the vaccine to frontline medical staff otherwise they had to wait for more to get the vaccine and keep working under the shadow of fear of contracting the virus," Zubair told Xinhua.
The first batch of 500,000 Sinopharm vaccines reached Pakistan early Monday from Beijing on a special Pakistan Air Force plane.
Pakistan has confirmed 549,032 cases, while 11,802 people have lost their lives to the disease since the outbreak in the country, according to the data released by Pakistan's health ministry on Wednesday. Enditem
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