ISLAMABAD — Pakistan’s foreign minister says Beijing has promised to provide 500,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine by Jan. 31.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi says his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi gave made this commitment during a phone conversation on Thursday. He says China is providing the first shipment of half million doses of vaccine without charge.

He hoped Pakistan will get another 500,000 doses of vaccine from China next month.

However, Qureshi didn’t specify which vaccine China would give to Pakistan.

Also Thursday, Qureshi took twitter, saying “with encouraging results of Chinese vaccine and our historic relationship, Pakistan has approved emergency use authorization of SinoPharm.”

The announcement comes a day after a top Pakistan said its talks with the manufacturers of Sinopharm and Cansino vaccines were at an advanced stage.

Pakistan has reported 54 confirmed deaths and 2,363 cases in the past 24 hours. Since the pandemic began, Pakistan has registered 11,157 confirmed deaths from and 527,146 infections.