Federal Minister for Planning and Development Asad Umar has said that Pakistan will receive 17 million doses of AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine in first half of 2021.

As per details, Minister for planning wrote in his tweet that government of Pakistan has received a letter from Covax confirming that 17 million doses of AstraZeneca will be provided to Pakistan in 1st half of 2021. He said that about six million doses will be received by March with delivery starting in February. Asad Umar said that Pakistan signed with Covax nearly 8 months back to ensure availability of the vaccine.

Prior to this, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) plane will depart today to bring the first batch of Covid-19 vaccine comprising five hundred thousand doses. The doses will be transported from Beijing in a special Chinese container. The authorities have confirmed that China has donated a total of 1.1 million vaccine doses to Pakistan.

Moreover, in another tweet, he highlighted country's sensitive price index (SPI) is recorded to 7.48 percent in comparison to that of last year. 

“Jan inflation (CPI) is down to 5.7%. Core inflation is at 5.4%,” he wrote. Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation was 5.8 per cent and core inflation 7.6pc before the PTI assumed power in 2018, he added. “The rate of inflation is LOWER today then when the PTI govt was formed,” Asad Umar said, using “#PMIKECONPOLICYSUCCESS” hashtag.