The Ministry of Health and Population said that it has been working to purchase an additional 6 million doses of the Vero Cell vaccine from China.

Officials said they are in talks with the Asian Development Bank to secure funds for the procurement.

“We have been holding talks with the Asian Development Bank to purchase an additional 6 million doses of the Vero Cell vaccine from China,” Dr Roshan Pokhrel, secretary for the Health Ministry told the Post. “We are working to secure a deal to purchase the vaccine at the earliest.”

Nepal has already purchased 10 million doses of Vero Cell or BBIBP-CorV vaccine developed by the Chinese state-affiliated pharmaceutical giant Sinopharm.

Of them, 4 million doses of the vaccine were purchased in June under a non-disclosure agreement with the Chinese company and an additional 6 million doses were purchased a few weeks ago, and the delivery has already started.

On Thursday, 1.6 million doses of the six million doses were delivered, according to secretary, Pokhrel.

“The remaining doses will be delivered regularly in the coming days,” said Pokhrel.

China has also provided 1.8 million doses of Vero Cell vaccine under grant assistance and has decided to provide an additional 1.6 million doses, which is expected to be delivered soon.

“We are also exploring other sources to secure a deal but a kind of agreement has been forged to purchase additional 6 million doses of Vero cell from China,” said an official familiar with the development at the Department of Health Services, asking not to be named.

After the government purchased 4 million doses of vaccine from China, Nepal’s vaccination gathered pace.

As of Saturday, 4,935,056 people have taken their first dose (16.45 percent of total population) and 3,835,608 have been fully immunised (12.78 percent).

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

Of the 1.6 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine, which Japan has promised through the COVAX facility, additional 208,060 doses of the vaccine were delivered Saturday and the remaining doses are expected to be delivered by Monday, according to officials at the Ministry.

Nepal has so far received the delivery of 7.4 million doses of Vero Cell (5.6 million bought and 1.8 million grant) from China.

Besides deliveries from China, Japan and Bhutan, the country received 1,534,850 doses of the single shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which was provided by the United States of America through COVAX.

Nepal had started its vaccination programme with 1 million doses of Covishield (AstraZeneca) vaccine provided by India, which is manufactured in India by the Serum Institute of India, under grant assistance. Later the Indian Army gifted 100,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine to Nepal Army.

Besides these, the Health Ministry has purchased 2 million doses of Covishield from the Serum Institute of India, but only half of the doses have been delivered.

India restricted vaccine export following a devastating second wave of the Coronavirus in the country in April which infected millions and killed hundreds of thousands.

Separately, the COVAX facility provided 348,000 doses.

The government has already paid for 4 million doses of the Moderna vaccine through the World Bank to the US manufacturer of the vaccine, and delivery is expected by mid-February.

Also expected by mid-February is 11 million doses from COVAX through a cost-sharing mechanism, which means the government will pay COVAX the amount equivalent to what COVAX paid to the manufacturing company.

“We have been expecting a kind of breakthrough in vaccine procurement within a week,” Upendra Dhungana, chief of the Logistic Management Section under the Department of Health Services, told the Post.

“We are working to sign a deal to purchase 30 million doses.”

The Health Ministry said that the new deal to procure 6 million doses of Vero Cell will also be under a non-disclosure agreement, meaning that the price per dose will not be revealed as per the condition of the Chinese vaccine manufacturing company.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has started administering the vaccine to all people above 40 years old in the Kathmandu Valley. Also, college students who have taken exam admit cards, employees and labourers working in the construction of new parliament building in Kathmandu, 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.

The government on Saturday reported 1, 424 new coronavirus cases taking the nationwide infection tally to 745,731. It also reported 30 Covid-19-related fatalities, which included the number of deaths managed by Nepal Army on different dates. The number of total deaths from Covid-19 has reached 10,485.