KATHMANDU, March 1: China has announced to provide an additional 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Nepal under grant assistance. The northern neighbor had earlier announced to provide 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines under grant assistance to support Nepal in its fight against the pandemic.
Ambassador of China to Nepal Hou Yanqi on Monday announced that China had decided to increase the grant assitance of the vaccines by additional 300,000 doses to Nepal. "In order to support Nepal's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chinese government has decided to increase grant assistance of vaccine for Nepal to 800,000 doses," tweeted the envoy. "Let us join hands to achieve the victory at an early date!"
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During a telephone conversaion with his Nepali counterpart Pradeep Gyawali in early February, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi had expressed committment to provide 500,000 doeses of COVID-19 vaccines as a grant. Minister Wang also had said that Beijing would accord priority to Nepal in vaccine cooperation.
Prior to the telephonic conversation between the two foreign minister, the Embassy in China in Kathmandu had announced to provide 300,000 doses of vaccines to Nepal. The vaccine to be donated to Nepal is developed by the Sinopharm and has already got approval for emergency use in Nepal.
"Despite huge demands for the vaccines both in China domestically and across the world at present, the Chinese government has prioritized Nepal in providing the vaccines, fully demonstrating the great importance it attaches to the China-Nepal friendship," the embassy had said in a press statement.
Nepal has already received one million dosese of Covishield vaccines from India on grant. In addition to this, Nepal has reached an agreement to procure two million doses of Covishield vaccines from India and one million doses of the vaccines has already arrived in Nepal.
