A consignment of 4.4 million doses of the Vero Cell Covid-19 vaccine arrived in Kathmandu on Friday afternoon.

With the latest consignment, Nepal has now received all six million doses the government had earlier purchased from China in August.

Dr Sagar Dahal, chief of the National Immunisation Programme, confirmed the arrival of the vaccines.

“The vaccines will be administered to everyone over the age of 18 in 10 hill districts. We plan to inoculate all eligible candidates in these districts at the same time since transporting the vaccines time and again is a challenge given the geographical remoteness of these areas.”

“We have also instructed the concerned authorities to provide vaccines to those above 18 years of age in Manang, Mustang and East Rukum,” said Dahal. “Eligible people who had missed the earlier vaccination drives will also be included this time.”

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

Four million doses of the vaccine were purchased in June under a non-disclosure agreement and a new deal was reached to purchase additional six million doses in August.

China has also provided 1.8 million doses of the Vero Cell vaccine under grant assistance and pledged to provide an additional 1.6 million doses.

Nepal so far has received a total of 17,757,590 doses of vaccines.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population, as of Friday, 55,07380 people across the country have been fully vaccinated. Similarly, 6083124 have received their first dose of vaccine against Covid-19.