KATHMANDU, JULY 17
The government is preparing to bring 3.2 million doses of vaccine against coronavirus by July 30 from neighbouring China.
According to Assistant Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population Dr Samir Kumar Adhikari, wide body aircraft of Nepal Airlines Corporation are scheduled to regularly ship the Vero Cell vaccine procured from China in four flights.
He said that the shipment process had already started adding that a wide body plane of NAC was scheduled to fly to China on July 21. Earlier, the NAC plane brought the vaccines from China on July 9.
Likewise, the ministry said that the second dose of Covishield would be administered soon to senior citizens who have already received the first dose. He added that the Covishield vaccines would be brought soon and all the senior citizens waiting for the second dose would be administered. The senior citizens will get the second dose of Covishield vaccine after getting it from the government of Japan.
Japan has already announced it will provide 1.6 million doses of vaccine to Nepal through COVAX. Various countries have pledged to provide COVID-19 vaccines for six million population of the country through the COVAX facility. Under this facility, countries including India, China, the United States and Japan have provided the vaccines.
On July 12, the US provided 1,534,850 Johnson & Johnson vaccines to Nepal as 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.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 18 2021, of The Himalayan Times.
