A plane carrying a Chinese COVID-19 vaccine donation for Pakistan has arrived in the country, Special Assistant to the Pakistani Prime Minister on Health Faisal Sultan said on Monday.

Sultan expressed his gratitude to China on Twitter for sending Sinopharm vaccines to Pakistan, adding that the frontline healthcare workers will be the first one to be vaccinated.

According to the health ministry, the vaccine doses will be formally handed over to the Pakistani side at a ceremony to be held later in the day.

The National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) said earlier on Sunday that a comprehensive vaccine administration strategy has been formed to administer the vaccines across Pakistan.

"All necessary measures have been put in place for vaccine storage at Islamabad and move of vaccine to various federating units particularly to Sindh and Balochistan through air," the NCOC said.

Pakistan has so far confirmed 546,428 cases and lost 11,683 lives to COVID-19, according to the latest government data. 

(Cover: A health worker bags a swab at a COVID-19 testing facility set-up at the Indus Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan, January 28, 2021. /VCG)