Pakistan to import Chinese Cansino COVID vaccine in bulk to package 3 million doses locally: minister

FILE PHOTO: Vials of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate, a recombinant adenovirus vaccine named Ad5-nCoV, co-developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical firm CanSino Biologics Inc and a team led by Chinese military infectious disease expert, are pictured in Wuhan, Hubei province, China March 24, 2020. China Daily via REUTERS

Pakistan will import Chinese Cansino Biologics COVID-19 vaccines in bulk to package 3 million doses locally, said the minister in charge for COVID operations.

"We will be getting the bulk vaccine by mid-April from Cansino, from which 3 million doses can be made," the minister, Asad Umar said on Twitter.

The first batch of 60,000 doses of the vaccine is arriving today, he said.

Pakistan expects to receive one million doses of Sinopharm vaccine in a couple of days.

(Reporting by Asif Shahzad, editing by Louise Heavens)