The Japanese government's grant assistance to strengthen the vaccine cold chain system in Nepal should give a boost to the vaccination roll-out against COVID-19 currently underway in the country.

Japan began providing these high-quality facilities through the United Nations Children's Fund, Unicef, since last year, and complete delivery was made on Sunday, or January 30. Under the grant, Nepal has received nine walk-in coolers, 38 solar-driven vaccine refrigerators, 1,109 long-range vaccine carriers and 53 cold boxes to enhance the effectiveness of the COVID-19 campaign. Since the vaccine campaign was launched on January 27 last year, 40 per cent of its 29 million population had been fully inoculated against COVID-19 by mid-January, putting the country on track to meet the remaining global vaccination target set by the WHO. The WHO had set a target of inoculating 10 per cent of the population of every country by September last year, 40 per cent by 2021 end, and 70 per cent by mid-2022.

Nepal's vaccine roll-out against the coronavirus compares favourably in the region, with 70 per cent of the targeted group having been administered two doses of the vaccine. According to Minister of Health and Population Birodh Khatiwada, 70 per cent of those aged 18 and above have taken the complete dose, while 83 per cent have taken their first dose. In the past one year, Nepal has received more than 40 million doses, of which more than 30 million have been administered.

Although 12 million of these vaccines were bought by the government, the vaccination campaign would not have been such a success without the remaining 30 million doses coming from friendly countries like India, China, Japan, the US, Britain, Germany, France and Switzerland, among others, and the Gavi, WHO and CEPI co-led COVAX programme, not to mention other logistics support. The country is now administering vaccines to children aged 12 to 17, of which more than 1.8 million have received their first dose and 358,000 their second dose. Simultaneously, booster doses are also being given to the general public.

Nepal must count itself lucky that there is little opposition to the vaccine, as seen in many countries, with the vaccine acceptance rate being the highest among south Asian countries. While administering the vaccines in the urban areas has been relatively easy, it is reaching out to the population in the hinterland that is posing a problem. Delivering the vaccines without breaking the cold chain in the remote areas has been a major challenge. While millions are still waiting to be vaccinated, a disturbing revelation was made by the Health Secretary only last week that 2.4 million doses of vaccines of various brands had gone missing or that there was no record of them with the government agencies, although this has been refuted by the health minister. A thorough investigation into the missing vaccines is a must to ensure that every vaccine bought with government money or received through the goodwill of friendly countries is put to good use and not squandered.

With the country in the midst of the third wave of the coronavirus, every vaccine counts as it is the only safeguard against infection.

Affordable health care

In a welcome move, Gandaki province is all set to increase people's access to an affordable health care system by introducing a policy of 'one doctor/health worker: one institution'. It means the provincial government will ensure the presence of health professionals in all the health facilities. It is the fundamental right of citizens to receive affordable health care services in their localities. However, most of the health facilities in the rural parts of the country lack medical equipment, skilled technicians, nurses and qualified doctors.

We can enhance our health care system even in the rural areas provided all families are encouraged to buy a health insurance policy at affordable cost. The government recently introduced a health insurance policy in some districts where the families who have bought the insurance policy are getting health services at affordable cost. Although there is still room for improvement in this policy, it has given great relief to the low-income families. The insurance covers costs of up to Rs 100,000 a year if a person of the insured family has to undergo medical treatment or surgery. The policy can be replicated all over the country to make our health system efficient.

A version of this article appears in the print on February 2, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.