Pakistan received another 500,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines as a “gift” from China, reported Dawn. Earlier China has gifted the same number of vaccines with which the country started its inoculation drive. 

The pace of vaccination has slowly picked pace in the country. Asad Omar, the Minister for Planning and Development, claimed on Wednesday that a total of 41,000 people were inoculated on a single day. The infection rate has been rising for some weeks now. 

Earlier, Pakistan’s health secretary, in a briefing to the Public Account Committee, had claimed that the government has no plan to buy vaccines, instead, it would rely on herd immunity and donated vaccines to tackle the crisis. 

Recently, authorities have allowed a private pharmaceutical company to procure the Russian-made Sputnik V vaccines. The decision was taken to boost the vaccination drive in the country, at least for those who can afford to pay it. Around 50,000 doses of Sputnik V arrived on Wednesday in Karachi. 

However, an official from the country’s drug regulator said the privately imported vaccines aren’t allowed to be sold to hospitals, and among health care workers.