While one does not look a gift horse in the mouth, what use is it if the vaccines are going to waste
With the country recording as many as 10,000 new COVID-19 infections a day, the government is under intense pressure to speed up its vaccination programme to cover the entire eligible population.
The government has been inoculating about 300,000 people a day as against its target of vaccinating half a million, and this despite the fact that Nepal has imported or received in donations adequate doses of vaccines against the virus. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, the government has so far received or procured around 40 million vaccines with 30 million jabs already given out to the public. The government now has about 8 million doses in stock. The government might have covered the entire eligible population by now had it worked with a sense of urgency instead of taking the business as usual approach. This led to vaccines stockpiling in the storage facilities, many of which had to be destroyed after their dates expired. This was particularly the case with vaccines with a short shelf life of just one or two months.
Nepal has, thus, declined offers of vaccinations with a short shelf life from the developed world, close on the heels of the step taken by several African countries. According to the Health Ministry, it politely declined an offer of nine million doses of vaccines from Poland, majority of which were of AstraZeneca.
Nepal has so far approved eight different vaccines for use in Nepal. They include Moderna, Pfizer, Janssen, Sputnik V, Vero Cell, Covaxin and Covishield (Oxford/AstraZeneca formulation). With more than 260,000 cases and close to 2,000 deaths, Nepal in mid-January last year had granted approval for AstraZeneca's Covishield vaccine, manufactured in India, against the coronavirus, all of which were used immediately.
Since then, Nepal has received AstraZeneca vaccines from several countries, namely Japan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom and also under UN's CO- VAX programme. But now Nepal is declining any offers of AstraZeneca vaccines. As against its shelf life of 1-2 months, China-made Vero Cell has a shelf life of 12 months, while Johnson and Johnson's Janssen can be used even two years after its manufacture.
While one does not look a gift horse in the mouth, it makes little sense to be receiving vaccines if they are going to waste because of their short shelf life. Vaccinating people in the capital and other urban cities is quite different from dispatching vaccines to the remote areas of the country. Although the government is said to be working on a strategy to limit vaccine wastage to below 1 per cent, the inoculation drive in the remote areas could jack up this percentage if the cold chain cannot be maintained or if the vaccines expire. Any wastage must be kept to a minimum as children have yet to be vaccinated in the country. The authorities better gird up their loins to provide a safety blanket to its population by vaccinating the maximum number of eligible citizens and also start providing booster doses where feasible. If both China and India can vaccinate a billion people in no time, there is no reason why Nepal cannot cover its population. All it requires are willpower and a sense of urgency on the part of the officials concerned.
Rural hospital
The federal government has decided to allocate Rs 15 crore to construct a 10-bed hospital in Malujamune village of Tamakoshi Rural Municipality. Five local people had donated nine ropanis of land for the construction of the hospital, which would provide services to the locals of ward No. 4. Its construction would begin soon after a tender is awarded.
It may be recalled that the erstwhile KP Oli-led government had announced to build 396 new hospitals across the country with the provision of efficient human resources and equipment so that the local people would not need to visit the district hospitals or the federal capital to receive health services. Building hospitals in the rural areas is the first step towards improving the locals' access to health services. These hospitals will not become fully functional unless the three tiers of government provide qualified doctors, nurses and needed equipment. The government should offer attractive salaries and other incentives, such as scholarships, in the government institutions for higher studies to those who work at least for two years in the rural parts of the country. The government should also come up with a long-term plan for their efficient operation at an affordable cost.
A version of this article appears in the print on January 21, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
