Islamabad, Mar 17 (PTI) Pakistan on Wednesday received half a million doses of coronavirus vaccines donated by China.

The second consignment of the Sinopharm vaccine was received by Pakistan health officials at the Nur Khan airbase in Rawalpindi.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on Health, Dr Faisal Sultan, was present to receive the batch of the vaccines.

"China has always supported Pakistan during difficult times," Sultan said, extending his gratitude to the Chinese government.

The vaccines will be shifted to the warehouse of the Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI) and administered to the frontline health workers and people above the age of 60 years across the country.

Earlier, China donated 500,000 doses of Sinopharm on February 1, enabling Pakistan to launch vaccination drive a day later.

The new consignment arrived amidst Pakistan struggling to combat the third wave of the pandemic, which threatened the earlier gains against the coronavirus when the country succeeded to contain the first two outbreaks.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's nationwide coronavirus tally reached 612,315 after 2,351 new cases were detected in the last 24 hours. Sixty-one more people died overnight, taking the COVID-19 toll to 13,656, according to the health ministry.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)