A consignment of 800,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines provided as a grant by China arrived in Kathmandu on Tuesday.

“The vaccines and the same number of syringes were airlifted from Beijing to Kathmandu by a chartered flight of Nepal Airlines Corporation this afternoon,” reads a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

President Bidya Devi Bhandari Bhandari on March 26 had held a telephone conversation with her Chinese counterpart Xi Jingping and sought facilitation from him for procurement of vaccines from China, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

During the conversation the Chinese President had announced that his country would provide 1 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Nepal in a grant.

The statement also said that 50,400 doses of the 200,000 vaccines that are being provided by the Government of the donated by theTibet Autonomous Region Governmentwere handed over to the Health Ministry officials this morning.

According to a press statement from Himalayan Airlines, a private airline, it brought the vaccines donated by the Tibet Autonomous Region Government from Kunming as its philanthropy.

“Another batch of 50,400 vaccines and syringes is scheduled to arrive in Kathmandu this evening,” read the statement.

The remaining consignment of 99,200 vaccines and syringes will arrive in Kathmandu on Wednesday, it said.

According to officials of the Health Ministry, the decision on who will get the jabs with the 1 million doses is yet to be decided although the Family Welfare Division of the ministry has recommended them for those aged 60 to 64 years.

Earlier on March 29, China had gifted 800,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Nepal.

Nepal’s drug regulatory body had granted emergency use approval to the Chinese vaccine in February.