The first batch of the COVID-19 vaccine is expected to reach Pakistan from China tomorrow. Authorities have decided to send a special Pakistan Air Force (PAF) plane to bring the vaccine.

According to the details, PAF's IL-78 will leave for China from Noor Khan base tomorrow. In the first phase, China will provide Pakistan with 500,000 doses of the Sinopharm vaccine.

The National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC), the country's nerve centre for unified efforts against coronavirus, in a statement, said all necessary measures have been put in place for vaccine storage in Islamabad.

As per these arrangements, the vaccine would be preserved in the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) and National Disaster Management Authority's (NDMA) cold storage from where it will be transported to the provinces.

The first batch of vaccines will be provided by the Chinese government as an aid, the foreign office spokesperson said and added that the Chinese government will “actively coordinate with the relevant Chinese enterprise to speed up the export of vaccines to Pakistan”.

Earlier this month, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had announced that China will provide Pakistan with 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine by the end of this month. In a statement issued by the Foreign Office, it was revealed that Beijing would also provide vaccines produced by CanSino and SinoVac to support Pakistan’s fight against the second wave of COVID-19.