Chinese vaccines are not recognised, Pakistanis storm vaccine centre in the capital for Covishield

FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT

Pakistani expatriate workers stormed vaccination centers in Islamabad in a desperate attempt to obtain a Pfizer or BioNTech or AstraZeneca Covid shot so they could travel to work in Saudi Arabia. The Gulf nation has approved the AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson vaccines. Anyone arriving without one of those shots is required to quarantine at an extremely high cost. Many Pakistani workers  complained that they cannot afford it. Pakistan has relied on the Sinopharm, CanSinoBio, and Sinovac vaccines donated by ally China. That has posed a problem for the tens of thousands of Pakistanis who work in Saudi Arabia and contribute $7 billion a year, or a quarter of the country's total annual remittances.