Nepal is receiving 1 million doses of Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, on Sunday.

According t0 the Ministry of Health and Population, of the 2 million doses of vaccine, for which the government signed a deal with the Indian manufacturer on February 17, 1 million doses will be arriving in Kathmandu on February 21 via a 1330 Air India flight.

A Cabinet meeting on Tuesday had approved the advance payment to procure two million doses from the Serum Institute of India at the rate of $4 per dose.

Accordingly, the government had signed a deal with the manufacturer.

According to the ministry, with the new lot of vaccines, the government will launch the second phase of vaccination drive to inoculate people above 55 years of age.

According to officials, the number of people above 55 years of age is around 3.7 million.

Nepal launched its vaccination drive on January 27 with the 1 million doses of vaccine the government had received on January 21 from India under grant assistance.

Covishield is the name given to the Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by India, which is developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was the first to get emergency use approval in Nepal from the country’s drug regulatory body.

On Tuesday, the drug regulator granted emergency use approval to a Covid-19 vaccine developed by the Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co Ltd (BIBP) in China under Sinopharm.

China has pledged to provide 500,000 doses of vaccine to Nepal under grant assistance.