Pakistan will launch its Covid-19 vaccination drive next week, starting with frontline healthcare workers, a top minister has said.

Minister for Planning Asad Umar who is heading National Command and Operation Center (NCOC) on Wednesday tweeted that the system for vaccination is in place. Hundreds of vaccination centres in the country will be administering COVID vaccine.

"God willing, the vaccination of frontline health workers will start next week," he said.

China has promised to provide 500,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine free of cost before the end of January.

Earlier, Pakistan approved three vaccines, including Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, Chinese China National Pharmaceutical Group (SinoPharm) and Russian-developed Sputnik V.

Meanwhile, the total number of coronavirus cases have reached 539,387 after another 1,910 new cases were recorded in the last 24 hours, according to the Ministry of National Health Services.

The ministry reported that 64 more people died, taking the number of Covid-19 deaths to 11,514.