ISLAMABAD: China will provide 500,000 doses of its Sinovac coronavirus vaccine to Pakistan by January 31, 2021, said Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, while talking to media here today.

He thanked “friend” Beijing for its generosity, adding that China has offered Pakistan to send an airplane and airlift the vaccine doses.

“Chinese foreign minister, in a telephonic conversation, has gifted half-million virus doses to Pakistan and said that Islamabad can airlift the medicine,” Qureshi said.

He said that he told his Chinese counterpart that Pakistan requires 1.1 million doses of the vaccine in view of its large population, adding that the Chinese had also promised to make available the required quantity of the doses by the end of next month.

“China has also agreed to manufacture the Covid vaccine in Pakistan,” he said