Nepal on Monday received 1,312,080 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the COVAX facility.
It is the second consignment, which is part of the 2,174,160 doses offered by the facility, the United Nation backed international vaccine sharing scheme.
“The doses are supplied by the United Kingdom through the COVAX facility,” said Badebabu Thapa, a senior official at the Logistic Management Section Under the Department of Health Services. “We have received the doses today (Monday).”
Nepal so far has received 47,912,000 doses of vaccines, including AstraZeneca, Vero Cell, Moderna, Janssen and Pfizer-BioNTech.
Nepal needs to vaccinate around 26 million of the 29.1 million population, as around three million are children under five years of age. Authorities had decided to inoculate children between five and 11 years but no deal has been reached so far to purchase vaccines for them.
So far, 16,357,977people, or 56 percent of the total population, have been
Arjun Poudel is a health reporter for The Kathmandu Post. Before joining the Post, he worked for Sagarmatha Television, Naya Patrika, Republica and The Himalayan Times.
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