Coronavirus: People’s Liberation Army provides Covid-19 vaccines to Pakistani military

Delivery comes after Beijing on Monday donated 500,000 doses of vaccines developed by Chinese firm Sinopharm to Pakistan

PLA also delivered batch of vaccines to Royal Cambodian Army on Sunday, defence ministry says

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A Covid-19 vaccine developed by Sinovac Biotech on Friday became the latest Chinese product to be granted conditional approval for public use. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 6:48pm, 7 Feb 2021Updated: 10:46pm, 7 Feb 2021

China’s military delivered a batch of Covid-19 vaccines to the Pakistan Army on Sunday, according to state media reports.

The Chinese defence ministry said in a statement that it was the first time it had provided coronavirus vaccines to a foreign army.

A report by Xinhua said the delivery was made at the request of the Pakistani military, but did not say if the products had been bought or donated, or which company produced them.

China’s defence ministry said on Sunday that the PLA also delivered a batch of Covid-19 vaccines to the Royal Cambodian Army the same day.

Beijing earlier donated 500,000 doses of vaccines developed by Chinese firm Sinopharm to Pakistan. They arrived in Islamabad on Monday aboard a Pakistan Air Force plane, according to a report by CGTN, the English-language news channel owned by China’s state broadcaster CCTV.

That was the first batch of vaccines to be donated by the Chinese government to another country, it said.