BEIJING:
As the country combats the third and potentially more dangerous wave of the pandemic, three special flights of the Pakistan International Airlines (PIA) carrying a fresh batch of one million doses of Covid-19 vaccine left from Beijing for Pakistan on Thursday.

"The fresh consignment is in addition to one million doses of Covid-19 vaccine transported to Pakistan from China by three planes of the national flag carrier on April 25," Qadir Bux Sangi, PIA country manager for China, said.

Giving details, he said two special planes with coronavirus vaccine left the Chinese capital early Thursday morning while the third special flight was scheduled to depart for Islamabad in the evening.

The shipment flies in as Pakistan's tally for confirmed cases reaches 815,711 and the death toll stands at 17,680.

So far, the Chinese government has provided three batches of vaccines to Pakistan, and the Chinese military also donated a batch of vaccines to the Pakistani Army. The Pakistani authorities have also purchased vaccines from China.

Meanwhile, China has pledged to continue the uninterrupted supply of vaccine to help Pakistan defeat the deadly virus.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan began a vaccination drive last month with over a million doses of Sinopharm vaccines donated by China.

Islamabad received the first Covid-19 vaccine consignment after a military aircraft transported it from Beijing on February 1 this year.

According to a senior Chinese official, the vaccine cooperation between Pakistan and China reflects the mutual assistance understanding between the two as all-weather strategic cooperative partners.