Pakistan will receive its first purchase of over one million doses of Chinese Sinopharm and CanSino Covid-19 vaccines by the end of March, federal minister Asad Umar has told Reuters.

This will be the first consignment of Covid-19 vaccines the government has purchased from any manufacturer.

“We have purchased one million and 60,000 doses of Sinopharm and CanSino vaccines,” Umar said. “We will be receiving the consignment before the end of March.”

He said the government was in talks with the same companies to purchase a further 7m doses of the vaccines.