In addition to the earlier contribution to support the government of Nepal in its fight against Covid-19, the government of Israel dispatched over half a million syringes to support immunisation efforts in the country.

A total of 5,63,000 syringes were handed over to the representatives of the Health Ministry at a function on Tuesday by Hanan Goder, Ambassador of Israel to Nepal.

The syringes will be used for Covid-19 vaccines to inoculate the population in Nepal, the Israeli Embassy in Kathmandu said in a statement.

“Israel is proud to cooperate with Nepal in this struggle against Covid-19,” said Goder.

Earlier Nepal had briefly put the vaccination drive on hold due to a shortage of syringes needed to inject the vaccines.

“The Embassy of Israel is happy to share humanitarian aid with the people of Nepal as an act of solidarity between our two nations. We believe that this gesture would contribute to meeting 2022 vaccination targets and bring the pandemic under control,” the embassy said in the statement.

For the last two years, the government of Israel has been supporting Nepal in its fight against Covid-19. The Embassy provided medical supplies—Personal Protective Equipment, masks, digital thermometers, surgical gloves, hand sanitisers, disinfectant solutions, among others— to the Ministry of Health and Population in June 2020.

In July 2020, the Embassy also dispatched similar medical supplies to the Ministry of Social Development in Madhes Province. In May 2021, a chartered flight of Nepal Airlines carried 22 tons of medical cargo from Israel. The supplies included ventilators, oxygen concentrators and other medical equipment. Likewise, the embassy had extended support with medical equipment for Covid-19 to Dhulikhel, Patan and Bir hospitals. It had also provided Covid-19 prevention kits to Nepal Police in 2021.