Islamabad, May 8 (TIWN) Pakistan on Saturday received its first consignment of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine as the country of 220 million scrambles to secure more supplies amid a third wave of the pandemic.

The first shipment of over 1.2 million doses of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine has arrived in Islamabad, Rana Safdar, a senior Health Ministry official, told dpa news agncy.  Pakistan secured 17 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the World Health Organization's COVAX programme.  The first delivery was expected in March but got delayed due to an Indian ban on the export of the vaccine.  Meanwhile, Pakistan started processing China's single-dose CanSino vaccine.  The vaccine is expected to be available for use by the end of this month.  The South Asian country is currently using China's Sinopharm and CanSino vaccines and has also allowed commercial sale of Covid-19 vaccines.