Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan contracts coronavirus
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has been diagnosed with COVID-19, two days after he received his first dose of a coronavirus vaccine.
“At this point, the prime minister's office can only confirm that the honorable prime minister has tested positive for COVID-19 and has self-isolated,” his office said in a statement on Saturday.
Later, Khan’s spokesman Shahbaz Gill said the 68-year-old premier, who has been seen attending regular gatherings – often without wearing a mask – had a mild cough and fever.
Senior aides said he had likely been infected before he received a shot of the Chinese-produced Sinopharm vaccine on Thursday.
Gill told a local television that Khan expressed concern after his positive test result that it could deter people from getting inoculated.
Vaccine hesitancy is common among Pakistanis. Due to widespread anti-vaccine conspiracy theories, polio remains endemic in the country.
Echoing Gill’s remarks, Information Minister Shibli Faraz told the Geo News television channel that Khan was probably infected before he was inoculated, during a series of public engagements this week.
Asad Umar, the minister in-charge of the country's COVID-19 operations, tweeted that it was “certain that PM had been infected prior to vaccination.”
“So please do vaccinate.”
Pakistan recently registered more than 3,870 new cases in 24 hours, the highest number of daily infections since early July.
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