KATHMANDU, JANUARY 23

Preparations are under way to dispatch COVID-19 vaccine to all seven provinces.

One million doses of the vaccine were received from India under grant assistance on Thursday.

According to Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population Jageshwar Gautam, these vaccines are now kept at the cold store of the Health Service Department, Teku, and they are gradually being dispatched to all the provinces.

Gautam added that the vaccines would reach all the districts from the respective provinces and all provinces would receive the vaccine tomorrow.

Three hundred hospitals across the country will administer vaccination.

Similarly, over 10 hospitals will administer vaccination in Kathmandu valley.

The ministry said that health workers, security personnel, ambulance drivers and workers involved in managing bodies of the COVID-infected, among other frontline workers, would be prioritised for vaccination in the first phase.

The vaccine will be administered in two doses over a time period of four weeks.

The ministry has made preparations to complete the first round within a week. The vaccine was found to be 70 per cent effective in India.