After news about the shortage of vaccines in Karachi and other parts of the country, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) announced the approval of a $500 million loan to help Pakistan procure coronavirus vaccines.
This amount is in addition to the funding provided by the World Bank, IMF and other donors previously.
According to Gulf News, the ADP project will support Pakistan’s national vaccination plan by helping to procure and deliver an estimated 39.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, safety boxes, and syringes.
Earlier, the World Bank said it would reallocate $150 million to Pakistan for the procurement of the vaccines.
Despite vaccine supply constraints globally, the Government of Pakistan has procured and administered more than 35 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. With a population of over r220 million, Pakistan has mainly relied on vaccines imported from China including Sinopharm, CanSino and Sinovac. Pakistan has also received around 8 million vaccine doses through the COVAX facility including AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Moderna.
Nearly 7.2 million Pakistanis have been fully vaccinated and more than 28 million have received one dose as of August 6.
Meanwhile, it was the seventh day of lockdown in Sindh on Friday as the province reported 2,170 new cases of COVID-19. 42 more patients lost their lives due to the virus and 18,223 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, reporting a positivity rate of 11.9 per cent.
Meanwhile, the federal health ministry said there is no shortage of vaccines in the country.
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