Nepal currently does not have Covid vaccine doses for children as well as the general adult population.

There are vaccine doses in stock for certain priority groups, but again the health agencies do not have enough funds to administer the doses.

“It is true that the budget for administering Covid vaccine and the allowances for immunisation workers have been slashed,” an official at the Ministry of Health and Population told the Post on the condition of anonymity, as the official is not authorised to speak to the media. “We only raise questions about low vaccine uptake, but do not discuss the underlying causes.”

The incumbent government has directed the ministries concerned to cut down on unnecessary expenditures, and the Ministry of Finance accordingly slashed the budget for Covid vaccination programme, officials say.

Along with the vaccination budget, the budget for paying lab technicians, who were hired throughout the country to carry out polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, has also been slashed, and these are among the reasons for fewer tests being conducted despite the surging infection rate, according to officials.

Also, a lot of health facilities and health workers, who were deployed in the first, second and third waves of the coronavirus pandemic have yet to get the allowances promised by the government.

“Yes, the budget for Covid vaccination has been slashed,” said Dr Bibek Kumar Lal, director of the Family Welfare Division under the Department of Health Services. “We all know how important Covid vaccination is, and we are witnessing a surge in new cases as well.”

Nepal has been witnessing a rise in new cases of coronavirus infection and XBB.1.16, a sub-variant of Omicron, is considered to be the main culprit. Doctors say XBB is a hybrid lineage of two Omicron sub-variants and has the capacity to evade immunity from prior infections and vaccinations.

“Decision to slash the Covid vaccination budget could prove costly,” said Mahendra Prasad Shrestha, former chief specialist at the Health Ministry. “Such nonsensical decisions are being made time and again, and the country and people have to pay for it.”

Shutting down the country after detection of just one Covid case, stopping free testing that led to a halt in contact tracing completely when a new wave of the pandemic was taking off, and asking people to come to the hospital only after developing serious symptoms, were among some of the wrong decisions taken by the authorities in the past. Such decisions are considered among the reasons for the rapid spread of the virus, according to experts.

There is a consensus among experts that vaccines are the only reliable means to lessen the severity and deaths from coronavirus infections as the general public stopped following safety measures long ago.

“We should not forget that vaccination helped to ease the severe impact of the pandemic and resume daily activities including economic activities. Children have returned to schools, and migrant workers are going abroad for employment again,” said Dr Baburam Marasini, former director at the Epidemiology and Disease Control Division. “The decision to slash the vaccination budget is terrible.”

Health authorities have been currently administrating Covid jabs to people above 55 years old, pregnant women, those having comorbidities, those taking immunosuppressants, and health workers. However, the uptake of the vaccine in the said groups is very low.

“To increase the vaccine uptake, vaccination should be launched as a campaign,” said an official at the Health Ministry, who also wished not to be named in the news as the person is not authorised to speak to the media. “But we don’t even have the budget to pay the vaccination staff.”

Meanwhile, the ministry said that 98 new cases of Covid have been reported on Wednesday. Of the 427 polymerase chain reaction tests conducted, 71 returned positive, and 27 others also tested positive in 1,341 antigen tests.

Active cases reached 322 on Wednesday.

The ministry said that four people in serious conditions have been admitted to intensive care in the Valley and one person in critical condition has been placed under ventilator support.