Staff Reporter Islamabad
A special aircraft of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) which reached Beijing on Sunday, will return today with the first batch of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Taking to his official Twitter handle, Planning and Development Minister Asad Umar shared a video of the plane being loaded with doses of the vaccine.
The plane will bring 500,000 vaccine doses that China had promised to provide to Pakistan earlier this month, according to a statement by the National Command and Operation Centre.
He said: “The process of loading of coronavirus vaccine into the PAF plane at Beijing airport is underway. This plane carrying the vaccine will be departing for Pakistan in next few hours and the vaccination process will commence in Pakistan in next few day.”
The doses will be transported from Beijing in a special Chinese container. The authorities have confirmed that China has donated a total of 1.1 million vaccine doses to Pakistan.
Meanwhile, the coronavirus claimed 34 more lives as another 1,599 people tested positive for the deadly disease during the past 24 hours across Pakistan.
According to the latest update released by the National Command and Operation Centre, 1,599 new infections surfaced after 42,455 samples were tested during this period. The positivity ratio of Covid-19 cases was recorded at 3.76 per cent.
In Rawalpindi, a PTI activist and chairman of the Insaf Lawyers Wing Advocate Shahid Naseem Gondal passed away at the Military Hospital on Saturday night due to complications arising from the novel coronavirus, party leaders and his family confirmed.
Gondal was also serving as the Chief Legal Adviser of the Capital Development Authority.
According to his nephew, Ihteshamul Haq Matoo, the PTI leader had been undergoing treatment for complications arising from Covid-19, including a lung infection, since the last few days. He had confirmed he tested positive for Covid-19 last month in a statement on Facebook.
The prime minister, in his condolence message said, he was “saddened” about learning of Gondal’s death and remembered him for being “one of our most loyal workers who stood with us during our struggle against the political mafias.”
Dr Mujahid, an orthopaedic surgeon, who was under treatment at a hospital after he was tested positive for the disease, died of coronavirus in Karachi on Sunday.
