DOMESTIC pharmaceutical giant China Meheco Group Co. shipped the first batch of oral COVID medicine made by Pfizer to the frontline of fight against COVID-19 in China, China Meheco announced on its official WeChat account.

The durg named Paxlovid was imported from Belgium and arrived at China Meheco’s logistics center in Daxing, Beijing, on Saturday with all procedures completed such as warehouse entry inspection.

On Sunday morning, a special truck carrying the medicine departed from the Daxing logistics center and headed for Changchun, capital of Northeast China’s Jilin Province, which has been hit by a strong wave of COVID-19 recently.

The drug was expected to arrive in Changchun on Sunday and will be sent immediately to the anti-coronavirus frontline upon arrival, the company noted in a statement.

According to China Meheco, the firm recently signed an agreement with Pfizer to take charge of Paxlovid’s commercial operations on the Chinese mainland.

Earlier, the drug was included into the latest coronavirus diagnosis and treatment plan approved by the National Medical Products Administration.

The mainland Sunday reported 1,947 locally transmitted COVID-19 cases, the National Health Commission said yesterday. Of the new local infections, 1,542 were reported in Jilin, 154 in Fujian, 51 in Hebei, 38 in Guangdong, 35 in Liaoning, 27 in Heilongjiang, 24 in Shanghai, 18 in Tianjin, 14 in Shaanxi, 13 in Shandong and 10 in Hunan.

For other provincial-level regions, Gansu reported six cases, Beijing and Yunnan each reported four, Inner Mongolia and Zhejiang each reported two, and Jiangxi, Henan and Chongqing each reported one.

A total of 80 imported COVID-19 cases were reported Sunday, said the commission. It added that six suspected cases, all imported, were reported in Shanghai.

Sunday also saw the reporting of 2,492 asymptomatic cases, including 2,384 local ones, according to the commission. (Global Times, Xinhua)