Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has tested positive for COVID-19 virus just a few days after getting vaccinated. The news of the former champion Pakistani bowler contracting the COVID virus came from the Faisal Sultan, Special Assistant to Pakistan PM on Health Services.

Taking to Twitter, Mr. Faisal wrote, “PM Imran Khan has tested positive for Covid-19 and is self-isolating at home.” As to the contact cause of the COVID-19 virus, it should be noted that the Pakistani PM was holding meetings regularly. These meetings include the security conference in Islamabad which was attended by a large group of people. Moreover, he also addressed a meeting in an inauguration of a housing project for poor citizens of Pakistan and was reported by Reuters to have not worn mask.

Meanwhile, to avoid any concerns regarding the efficacy of the vaccine, the Pakistan’s National Health Services took to Twitter to issue a statement saying the Pakistani PM had not been completely vaccinated and didn’t receive the second dose of the vaccine before contracting the virus.

The ministry in its tweet wrote, “Prime Minister Imran Khan was not fully vaccinated when he contracted the virus. He only got the 1st dose and merely 2 days ago which is too soon for ANY vaccine to become effective. Anti-bodies develop 2-3 weeks after 2nd dose of 2-dose COVID vaccines.” The ministry ended the tweet asserting the vaccines efficacy with the hashtag #vaccineswork.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (Senator) Faisal Javed tweeted saying the Pakistan Prime Minister is experiencing only mild symptoms and having quarantined himself will continue to work from home.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan tests positive for coronavirus, is experiencing ‘mild symptoms’. He will self-quarantine at home however will continue to work from home over video conference,” Mr. Faisal tweeted.

Shahbaz Gill, PM Imran Khan’s Special Assistant on Political Communication tweeted saying Prime Minister’s symptoms are not “severe” in nature.

Shahbaz took to Twitter and said, “Prime Minister Imran Khan has tested positive for COVID-19. He is in quarantine at his residence. Thank God their symptoms are not severe. Very mild cough and mild fever. May Allah heal them soon. Amen. Inshallah you will keep up to date with their health.”

Pakistan has been seeing sharp surge in COVID-19 cases much akin to its neighbour India. On March 20th, the country recorded its highest single-day spike in the active COVID-19 cases in 2021 with 3,876 new cases with a positivity rate reaching up to 9.4%. With a population of 220 million, the country’s overall COVID-19 case tally is 6,23,135. So far, 13,799 people have lost their lives to the infectious disease.

Seeing how the country has been registering new COVID-19 cases, Asad Umar, Minister of Planning, announced that it will be importing 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from China by the end of the month. Earlier, China had already donated half a million doses of its Sinopharm vaccine on February 1 to initiate its COVID-19 vaccination drive. The country initiated its vaccination drive for the masses on March 10, starting with elderly. However, to its dismay, the country saw a poor response form frontline workers who expressed their skepticism about the Chinese vaccines.

As of now, the Chinese Sinopharm, CanSinoBio, Oxford-AstraZeneca and Russia’s Sputnik-V vaccines have already been approved for emergency use in Pakistan. Under the GAVI or United Global Alliance for Vaccines, India would be providing Pakistan 45 million made-in-India COVID-19 vaccines. A GAVI spokesperson spoke to reliable news agency and said, “Pakistan is one of the 92 lower-income economies eligible for support under the Gavi COVAX Advance Market Commitment (Gavi COVAX AMC).”