ISLAMABAD — Pakistan on Monday received half a million doses of Sinopharm's COVID-19 vaccine gifted by China, special assistant to the prime minister on health Dr. Faisal Sultan and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Monday.

A Pakistani military aircraft carrying the shipment landed in the Pakistani capital Islamabad early on Monday, Dr. Faisal Sultan said.

Video footage showed a forklift unloading boxes of the vaccine from a military transport plane.

Taking to Twitter, the top Pakistani health official thanked China and everyone who made this happen and said the National Command and Operations Centre (NCOC) and provinces played an instrumental role in tackling COVID.

“Alhamdulilah the first batch of Sinopharm vaccine has arrived! Grateful to China and everyone who made this happen. NCOC & provinces played an instrumental role in tackling COVID.”

“I salute our frontline healthcare workers for their efforts & they'll be first to get vaccinated,” Dr. Faisal Sultan.

In a separate statement, the foreign minister said China has gifted 500,000 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Pakistan adding that the country required 1.1 million more doses by the end of February.

He said that the health ministry should devise an easy and transparent mechanism for the registration and administration of the vaccine.

Sinopharm, a Chinese state-owned company, has developed one of two major Chinese vaccines to have been rolled out around the globe, alongside Sinovac’s coronavac vaccine. — Agencies