Around 50 percent of the people above 65 years old from Kathmandu, who took their first dose of the Covishield vaccine have not been seeking a second dose.

The Health Ministry started administering a second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the people above 65 years old, from August 9.

“Around 50 percent of the people above 65 years, who took the first dose of Covishield in March have not been seeking a second dose,” Badri Bahadur Khadka, chief of the Health Office, Kathmandu, told the Post. “We have been urging all to take the second dose.”

The number of people not seeking a second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine is significant in other districts as well but the Ministry of Health and Population said that it does not have the exact data.

Around 1.4 million people took the first dose of the Covishield vaccine between March 7 and 15. Those who were supposed to take the second dose after 12 to 16 weeks had been deprived of the vaccine for a long time.

The Health Ministry had started administering a second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine to those who had taken the first dose of the vaccine, after Japan and Bhutan supplied 1,077,320 doses (847,320 from Japan and 230,000 doses from Bhutan) of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The Health Office, Kathmandu has started administering first dose jabs to other groups from Tuesday, after people above 65 years old did not show up for the second dose.

“We can use the vaccine for about 12 days only, as the vaccine supplied to us is close to expiry date,” said Khadka. “It will be better to use the vaccine in other age groups instead of letting it expire.”

All the 230,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, supplied from Bhutan have an expiry date of August. The Department of Health Services had supplied 102,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine to the Health Office, Kathmandu but only less than half have been used.

The Health Office, Kathmandu said that people above 18 years of the priority groups can take the first dose of AstraZeneca vaccine from Radha Swami Isolation Center, Samakhusi, Nepal Police Hospital, Bir Hospital, Army Hospital, Civil Hospital, Paropakar Maternity and Women’s Hospital, National Ayurveda Research and Training Center and Armed Police Force Hospital.

Likewise, the first dose of the AstraZencea vaccine is being administered from Kirtipur Municipality, Budhanilkantha Municipality, Nagarjun Municipality, Gokarneshwar Municipality, Tarakeshwar Municipality, Kageshwari Manohara Municipality and Tokha Municipality.

According to Khadka, college students, who have taken exam admit cards, employees and labourers working in the construction of new parliamentary building, migrant workers and students and others going abroad, patients with renal failure who have to undergo dialysis, those having organ transplantation and cancer patients are in the priority list for the first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Those residing in rehabs and the staff serving there, workers serving in the industrial areas, women and girls sheltering at Maiti Nepal, family members of security personnel and those above 30 are in the priority list.

“We have also been instructed to provide jabs to those, who have taken the first dose but not come for the second dose due to various reasons,” said Khadka.

Officials at the Ministry of Health and Population concede that a lot of people, who had taken the first dose of the Covishield vaccine in March are not seeking a second dose throughout the country.

“I don’t have exact data of the people who have not taken the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine, but their number is significant,” Dr Jhalak Gautam, chief of the National Immunisation Programme, told the Post. “We have asked the immunisation centers to provide the vaccine to those who took the first dose earlier.”

Public health experts said people above 65 years who had taken Covishield five months ago not seeking a second dose of vaccine is a concerning trend.

“It is very serious that around half of the people above 65 years in Kathmandu have not been seeking a second dose,” Dr Shyam Raj Upreti, coordinator of the Covid-19 Vaccine Advisory Committee, told the Post. “If the second dose is not taken, the status of full vaccination is not achieved and the risk of severity and death will increase as people above 65 years are a high risk group.”

The Health Ministry said that the risk is high among the said age group as highly contagious Delta variants of the coronavirus have been circulating in the country.

On Wednesday, 2,613 people tested positive in 11,839 polymerase chain reaction tests and an additional 790 people tested positive in 4,999 antigen tests. In the last 24 hours, 42 people succumbed to Covid-19. Active cases stand at 40,338 on Wednesday.

“Even if the first dose of the vaccine provides some level of protection, a second dose is needed,'' said Gautam. “I would like to request everyone to take a second dose of the vaccine.”

Officials suspect that some people might have already taken a second dose from India. and some might have been infected again, due to which they are not seeking a second dose.

“We do not have a system to track the people who are not seeking a second dose of the vaccine,” Dr Samir Kumar Adhikari, joint spokesperson for the Health Ministry, told the Post.

It has been reported that some people who had taken the first dose of Covishield have taken the Chinese Vero Cell vaccine as the second dose.

So far, 4,785,902 people have taken their first dose of vaccine (around 15.92.percent) and 3,649,760 (12.1 percent) have been fully immunised.