Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan tested positive for COVID-19 two days after he took the vaccine, developed by China. Faisal Sultan, Special Assistant to the Pakistani PM on health services tweeted, “PM Imran Khan has tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating at home.” His symptoms are not severe with a very mild cough and mild fever.
PTI Senator Faisal Javed tweeted that Imran Khan is “experiencing mild symptoms” and will “continue working from home.”
Pakistan’s Ministry of National Health Services has issued a statement saying that Imran Khan was not fully vaccinated when he contracted the virus.
Pak ministry also tweeted, “He (Imran Khan) only got the first dose and merely two days ago, which is too soon for any vaccine to become effective. Antibodies develop two-three weeks after the second dose of two-dose COVID vaccines.”
China had donated 5 lakh doses of the Sinopharm vaccine to Pakistan on February 1st, which kick-started Pakistan on the COVID-19 vaccination drive. Prime Minister Imran Khan received his first Sinopharm vaccine shot after its second consignment was delivered from China to Pakistan on March 17.
The coronavirus cases in Pakistan have crossed 6.15 lakh and the death count has crossed over 13,700 in their 208.57 million population (21.66 crores), which has risen. Sinopharm, the Chinese-made vaccine is at present only made available to Pakistan and is said to become effective after two successful doses.
Imran Khan, 68, had been vaccinated on Thursday. He has been holding frequent meetings recently and also attended a security conference held in the capital Islamabad that was attended by a large number of people. According to news agency Reuters, he addressed the conference without wearing a mask, and he also visited a gathering to inaugurate a housing project for poor people without asking, on Friday.
Pakistani minister Asad Umar said that hospitals were overflowing fast with fresh COVID-19 cases and had forewarned sterner measures to be taken if Coronavirus curbing rules were not followed. He tweeted, “The new strain (first found in Britain) spreads faster and is more deadly.”
Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi has also tested positive for COVID-19.
Pakistan will soon get made-in-India coronavirus vaccines under GAVI, (the United Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization or GAVI) which is a public-private global health partnership to increase access to immunization in poor countries.
Prayers and love across the globe were sent to him wishing him a speedy recovery.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India wished him a speedy recovery too.
Best wishes to Prime Minister @ImranKhanPTI for a speedy recovery from COVID-19.
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) March 20, 2021