On Saturday, the Special Assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan on Health Dr. Faisal Sultan announced that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines are expected to arrive in Pakistan by early March.

SAPM took to Twitter notifying the public that the English vaccines will be available soon and that people aged above 60 years of age can now begin registration for the vaccination. He wrote:

Pak Covid-19 vaccination, next phase - now that we have expected arrival of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in early March, all those 60 years of age and older are now requested to begin registration.

He also shared the procedure for applying for a vaccine in Pakistan. He tweeted:

Send CNIC as SMS to 1166. You will receive a reply with instructions on the next steps.

The news about the availability of Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines is welcoming. Research has shown that this vaccine is highly effective. No one given the vaccine in trials developed severe Covid-19 or needed hospital treatment. Another factor that makes the Oxford vaccine quite easy to distribute is the fact that it can be stored in a normal fridge, unlike Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine that needs to be kept at an extremely cold temperature (-70C).