Two days after taking the Chinese COVID-19 vaccine, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has tested positive for the virus. This was confirmed by the Faisal Sultan, who is the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services, Regulations & Coordination.
Khan received the first shot of Chinese vaccine Sinopharm on March 18.
"Prime Minister Imran Khan was vaccinated today. On the occasion, he appealed to the nation to ensure full implementation of SOPs in view of the third wave of the pandemic," according to a tweet by his office.
This comes a day after the South Asian nation received half a million doses of coronavirus vaccines donated by China.
Earlier, China donated 500,000 doses of Sinopharm to Pakistan on February 1, enabling the country to launch a vaccination drive a day later.
The country, which has reported 615,810 COVID-19 cases so far, launched COVID-19 vaccinations for the public on March 10, starting with older people. Health workers started receiving shots in early February.
Pakistan is expecting to get GAVI's first batch of 2.8 million doses of AstraZeneca sometime later this month, officials said.
Besides Sinopharm and AstraZeneca, Pakistan has approved Russia's Sputnik and China's CanSino Biologics Inc's (CanSinoBIO) vaccines for emergency use.
