The vaccine will be administered to people above 55 years of age

KATHMANDU, Feb 11: The government is close to seal a deal to procure two million doses of ‘Covishield’ vaccine from India, said a high-ranking government official.

“The government is in the final phase to procure vaccines sufficient for at least a million people. The vaccine will arrive in Nepal within a month,” said the official at the Department of Health Services.

The vaccine Nepal is preparing to procure from India is produced by the Serum Institute of India, and is jointly developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca – a British-Swedish pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company.

“The government has planned to inoculate people older than 55 years old with the vaccine procured from India. As frontline workers and employees in high risk will be inoculated against Covid-19 with the vaccine gifted by India, the new batch of vaccine procured from the southern neighbor will be administered to people above 55 years of age,” said Dr Shyam Raj Upreti, coordinator of the COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Committee.

The government started the first phase of vaccination drive on January 27, and nearly 185,000 people got vaccinated against Covid-19 as of Saturday.

Likewise, the Department of Drug Administration is in the final phase to approve the BBIBP-CorV vaccine – developed by Sinopharm, a state-owned Chinese company. As the Chinese government has announced to provide 500,000 doses of the vaccine to Nepal under grant assistance, the government is preparing to give emergency approval to the vaccine at the earliest.

Without the green signal from the government, the BBIBP-CorV vaccine – developed by Sinopharm – cannot be brought to Nepal.

Sinopharm, a Chinese state-owned company, has said that phase three clinical trials of the vaccine showed that it was 79% effective. Though the vaccine is still in the phase III trial, several countries have already approved the vaccine for emergency use.

Similarly, Nepal is also getting 2,256,000 doses of ‘Covishield’ vaccine under the COVAX facility of the World Health Organization (WHO), the global health body. The first batch of vaccine is expected to arrive in Nepal by the end of February, or by the first week of March.

The UN agency is providing vaccines for 20 percent of the population of Nepal. “Under the facility, Nepal is getting at least 13 million doses of vaccine for 20 percent of the population. The vaccine will be sent by the UN agency in four phases,” said Upreti.

 
• COVID_19
 
• covishield
 
• vaccine_procurement
 
• Nepal