The 68-year-old ex-international cricketer received his first dose of the Chinese Sinopharm coronavirus vaccine on Thursday. The Sinopharm Injection is the only Covid-19 vaccine available in Pakistan.
Pakistan’s Ministry of Health said it may take a few weeks to develop immunity to the virus after vaccination, and has urged the public not to be deterred from receiving an injection based on Khan’s diagnosis.
Prime Minister Imran Khan was not fully vaccinated when he contracted the virus. He only got the first dose and only 2 days ago, which is too early for ANY vaccine to be effective. Antibodies develop 2-3 weeks after the second dose of 2. -dose COVID vaccines. #VaccinesWork, ”Pakistan’s Ministry of Health tweeted Saturday.
According to Johns Hopkins University in the United States, the South Asian country of 220 million people killed 13,799 and recorded 623,135 cases during the pandemic.
The number of cases in Pakistan has increased in recent weeks, although the pandemic has remained largely under control. Lockdown restrictions have been tightened in some parts of the country in response to increasing infections.
The roll-out of vaccines in Pakistan, which began on March 10 in the elderly, has met with hesitation in some sections of the population and images of Khan receiving the shot were broadcast in an apparent effort to allay concerns.
Khan’s spokesman Shahbaz Gill was quick to distance the prime minister’s positive test result with Sinopharm’s shot.
Gill said Khan had a mild cough and fever, and prayed that he would recover quickly.
Khan holds regular meetings and recently attended a security conference in the capital, Islamabad, where he addressed a crowd without a mask.