Special plane to bring vaccine from China: official.

ISLAMABAD -- Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health Dr Faisal Sultan on Thursday revealed that a special plane would be flown to China in the next couple of days for transportation of the first tranche of Covid-19 vaccine.

'It is expected that the first consignment will have around 500,000 doses of vaccine and administration of vaccine will be started at the earliest,' he said while talking to Dawn.

Earlier, the SAPM chaired a special session on Pakistan's vaccine strategy held at the National Command and Operation Centre (NCOC). Provincial health ministers attended the session via video link. The session deliberated on efficient vaccine movement to various federating units and deployment mechanism.

The provinces' representatives updated their complete deployment plan and infrastructure arrangements for administration of vaccine. It was informed that a vaccine nerve centre has been established at NCOC with provincial vaccine administration centre and up to district level arrangements have been made.

Says system evolved to ensure everyone has access to the vaccine

'We are fully prepared for this undertaking and also united in this mission. Our coordinated efforts have brought us a long way,' Dr Sultan said.

Later, during a briefing at the Senate Standing Committee on National Health Services (NHS), he said all arrangements were in place and the vaccine would be available in Pakistan hopefully in the coming week. He said a system had been formulated in collaboration with Nadra to ensure that everyone has access to the vaccine.

'The process will begin with frontline healthcare workers and will proceed to senior citizens of more than 65 years of age who are at high risk. In this regard, all efforts have been done. Procurement of vaccine will be made through vaccine companies directly and also by Covax, which is a global initiative to ensure rapid and equitable access for all countries,' he said.

Dr Sultan asserted that 20 per cent of the population will be covered through it (Covax).

Committee chairperson Senator Khushbakht Shujaat of the...