Government bringing 3.2 million doses of vaccines from China by July 30
The government is preparing to bring 3.2 million doses of vaccines against coronavirus by July 30 from neighboring China.
According to the Assistant Spokesperson at the Ministry of Health and Population Dr. Samir Kumar Adhikari, wide-body aircraft of Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) are scheduled to regularly ship the Vero Cell vaccine procured from China in four flights.
He said that the shipment process has already started adding that a wide-body plane of NAC is scheduled to fly to China on July 21. Earlier, the NAC plane brought the vaccine from China on July 9.
Likewise, the Ministry said that the second dose of Covishield would be administered soon to the senior citizens who have already received the first dose of Covishield. He added that the Covishield vaccines would be received soon and all the senior citizens waiting for the second dose would be administered soon. The senior citizens would get the second dose of the Covishield vaccine after getting it from the government of Japan.
Japan has already announced to provide 1.6 million doses of vaccines to Nepal through COVAX.
Various countries have pledged to provide COVID-19 vaccines for the 6 million population of the country through the COVAX facility. Under this facility, countries including India, China, the United States of America, and Japan have provided the vaccines.
On July 12, the US provided 1,534,850 Janssen & Janssen vaccines to Nepal in the grant.
Earlier, Nepal received 348,000 Covishield vaccines provided by India.
Likewise, the government of Japan has pledged to provide 1.6 million AstraZeneca vaccines to Nepal. So far, Nepal has received 6,582,850 COVID-19 vaccines.
Additional vaccines were coming in through the facility, said Dr Jhalak Sharma Gautam, chief of the child health and immunization section under the Department of Health Services.
So far in the country, 2,765,709 populations have been administered the first dose of the vaccine and 1120,282-second dose. The government aims to administer the vaccine to the total 22 million populations above the age of 18 for free.
