ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Saturday tested positive for the novel coronavirus two days after inoculating with Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine.
The news was confirmed by the Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Health Services Dr. Faisal Sultan, who took to Twitter and wrote ‘PM Imran Khan has tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating at home.’
Following the development, NHS experts say cases like these are not surprised as they do not indicate that there was something wrong with the Covid-19 jabs or how they were administered.
Ministry of National Health Services clears the air in a tweet that reads ‘Prime Minister Imran Khan was not fully vaccinated when he contracted the virus.’
The premier only administered the first dose and merely two days ago which is too soon for any vaccine to become effective. Anti-bodies develop two to three weeks after the second dose of COVID vaccines, it further added in the tweet.
The premier was administered the Covid vaccine during the second phase of the vaccination drive in the country in which people over 60 years of age are receiving jabs against the deadly virus.
On the other hand, the Covid-19 positivity ratio in Pakistan has spiked up to 10 percent on Saturday (today) as Pakistan recorded 3,876 confirmed cases - an eight-month high.
Pakistan also recorded at least 42 fatalities from the virus in the last 24 hours and the total tally of the cases has reached 623,135 out of which 29,576 were categorised as active. The highest number of cases to date has been reported in Sindh followed by Punjab and other provinces.