Coronavirus: Consignment of 1m doses of Russia's Sputnik V vaccine reaches Islamabad

• First consignment of Sputnik V arrives in Islamabad.
• It comprises one million doses and has been handed over to health ministry.
• Sputnik vaccine doses will be distributed among country's provinces as per demand,  says health ministry official.

ISLAMABAD: A consignment of Russian made Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine, purchased by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), has arrived in Islamabad, the authority's spokesperson confirmed Wednesday.

This is the first Sputnik V vaccine consignment to have reached Islamabad. It comprises one million doses and has been handed over to the Ministry of National Health Services, the NDMA spokesperson said.

The Sputnik vaccine doses will be distributed among the country's provinces as per demand, a health ministry official said.

In June, the vaccine's developers said Sputnik V was around 90% effective against the Delta variant.

Pakistan received its first shipment of privately-imported Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V in March this year, at the Jinnah International Airport in Karachi.

The country had imported 50,000 doses of the Sputnik coronavirus vaccine and all doses were given exclusively to major hospitals.

At the time, the double-dose Sputnik V was the first COVID-19 vaccine available in Pakistan in the private sector as earlier the country was relying on the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine only.