Nepal on Saturday received 513,420 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine provided by the Japan government through the COVAX facility, an international vaccine-sharing scheme backed by the United Nations.
This is the first consignment of the 1.6 million doses of the vaccine Japan has committed to Nepal.
Dr Samir Kumar Adhikari, joint spokesperson for the Health Ministry, confirmed to the Post that 513,420 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Nepal on Saturday morning. Some more doses, to make half of the total commitment, are expected to arrive on Sunday.
Angad Dhakal/TKP
The remaining doses of the vaccine will arrive after a week, according to the Health Ministry.
“We have received the first consignment of the vaccine today,” Dr Roshan Pokhhrel, secretary at the Ministry of Health and Population, told the Post. “Second consignment will arrive on Sunday.”
The AstraZeneca vaccine from Japan arrived in Nepal a day after 230,000 doses of the same type of vaccine were delivered to Nepal by Bhutan.
Nepal needs around 1.4 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine immediately to administer second doses to those aged 65 and above who took their first doses in the second week of March.
“We will start providing second doses to those over 65 years from Monday,” said Pokhrel.
Nepal started its vaccination drive in January with the 1 million doses of Covishield, the AstraZeneca type vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, which were gifted to Nepal by the Indian government.
Of the 2 million doses Nepal bought from the Serum Institute, only 1 million doses were shipped.
So far, Nepal has received 10,526,270 doses of vaccine from various sources.
Nepal so far has used Covishield, Vero Cell, developed and manufactured by China’s Sinopharm, and Janssen by Johnson & Johnson to inoculate its population against Covid-19.
Of the 5.8 million doses of Vero Cell, 4 million doses Nepal bought from China while 1.8 million doses were provided by the Chinese government under grant assistance.
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