Nepal today received some 513,420 doses -- the first consignment of the 1.6 million doses -- of AstraZeneca vaccine gifted by Japan through the COVAX facility, an international vaccine-sharing scheme backed by the United Nations (UN).
The Health Ministry confirmed that some 513,420 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine arrived in Nepal today morning. Some more doses -- the second consignment -- are expected to arrive tomorrow, according to the ministry. "The remaining doses of the vaccine will arrive after a week."
Japanese ambassador Kikuta Yutaka attended the hand-over ceremony of the Japanese-made AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) with the state minister of Health and Population Umesh Shrestha, joint secretary of North East Asia Division at the Foreign Ministry Lok Bahadur Thapa, representative of UNICEF Nepal Elke Wisch and WHO representative to Nepal Dr Rajesh Sambhajirao Pandav. "The vaccine donation from Japan for Nepal through COVAX facility was announced by minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan Motegi Toshimitsu on July 13," according to Japanese Embassy in Kathmandu. "The remaining half of 1.6 million doses pledged by Japan will be shipped to Kathmandu shortly, once the arrangements of the relevant organisations finalised," the Embassy press note reads.
At the hand-over ceremony, ambassador Kikuta stated that this donation is 'From the People of Japan for the Friendship with Nepal'. He also appreciated the cooperation of all the concerned organisations including the government of Nepal and the international organisations such as COVAX, GAVI, WHO and UNICEF. He also mentioned that the Government of Japan strongly supports the vaccination campaign by Deuba administration, which is necessary for the progress of post-COVID Nepali society and its economic recovery. "We hope that this vaccine, together with other generous contributions from international community, will help Nepal to ease down various difficulties caused by the Covid-19," the ambassador added.
Japan has been providing various support for Nepal to tackle with the Covid-19 pandemic with medical equipment for Nepali hospitals to date, the Embassy of Japan will continue working together with Nepal to overcome the pandemic, the press note reads.
The vaccine from Japan arrived in Nepal a day after 230,000 doses of the same type of vaccine were delivered to Nepal by Bhutan. Nepal needs some 1.4 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine immediately to administer second doses to those aged 65 and above, who took their first doses in the second week of March.
The received vaccine will be provided as the second doses to those over 65 years from Monday,” the Health Ministry confirmed.
Nepal started the vaccination drive in January with the 1 million doses of Covishield, the AstraZeneca type vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, which were gifted to Nepal by India. Of the 2 million doses Nepal bought from the Serum Institute, only 1 million doses were shipped. Serum Institute of India is yet to ship the remaining doses.
According to the ministry, Nepal has received some 10,526,270 doses of vaccine from various sources.
Nepal so far has used India-manufactured Covishield, China's Sinopharm manufactured Vero Cell , The US manufactured Johnson & Johnson. "Of the total 5.8 million doses of Vero Cell, Nepal bought some 4 million doses from China whereas 1.8 million doses were provided by the Chinese government under grant assistance," according to the ministry, "On July 12, the US provided some 1,534,850 doses of Janssen through the COVAX facility, whereas COVAX itself had supplied 348,000 doses of Covishield to Nepal on March 7.
As of today, some 4,442,622 people have received their first doses (around 14.8 per cent) and some 2,359,793 people have been fully vaccinated (some 7.86 per cent). The government has unveiled a plan to procure 42 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine by February next year, and inoculate all eligible citizens above 12 years of age before mid-April.
As of Saturday, 4,442,622 people have received their first doses (around 14.8 percent) and 2,359,793 people have been fully vaccinated (7.86 percent).
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