KATHMANDU, Dec 23: The COVAX facility has so far provided nearly 8 million doses of vaccines to help Nepal fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to a joint press statement issued by the COVAX partners on Thursday, the latest COVAX Facility AMC window shipment of Covid-19 vaccines for the people of Nepal includes 6,039,000 doses of Covishield and 1,686,000 doses of Moderna, delivered through a series of consignments between 29 November and 20 December.
Nepal receives 1.2 million doses of Vero Cell under COVAX
In addition to the vaccines, over three million syringes and around 83,000 syringe safety boxes and ten specialized walk-in-coolers have been handed over to Nepal. The vaccines and accompanying vaccination supplies and equipment are being quickly distributed to provinces and municipalities across the country.
The COVAX has already donated over 7.725 million vaccines to help Nepal’s efforts to vaccinate people across the country. The latest COVAX vaccine delivery will be further boosting the Government of Nepal’s vaccination efforts to protect the people of Nepal. As of 22 December, over 22 million doses have been administered – 9.7 million people have been fully vaccinated and 13.8 million have been partially vaccinated with one dose - in Nepal, according to the statement.
The statement further said that this has been achieved with vaccines provided through the COVAX Facility, through partner country dose sharing and through direct government procurement. Importantly, this latest COVAX AMC delivery includes 1,686,000 Moderna doses which are enabling the rollout of the vaccination campaign to children aged between 12-17 years in Nepal.
The COVAX Facility, a partnership between CEPI, Gavi, UNICEF and WHO, made possible through generous support from partner governments, international organizations, foundations and the private sector. "The delivery of COVAX-procured vaccines to Nepal is part of ongoing efforts towards ensuring equitable distribution of COVID-19 vaccines globally. COVAX-supported vaccines provide a critical contribution to the Government of Nepal’s National Deployment and Vaccination Plan (NDVP) target to vaccinate people across Nepal," said the press statement.
The COVAX Facility is funded by an extensive group of donor government partners as well as foundations and corporations, including COVAX Facility partners with a presence in Nepal: Australia,China, the European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Norway, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
