KATHMANDU, Jan 13: The government has sought additional 1.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to administer booster doses in view of increasing infection in neighboring countries. 

The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) on Thursday wrote to the ‘Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunization (GAVI)’ for additional dispatch of vaccines. Sagar Dahal, chief of the Child Health and Immunization Section of the Child Welfare Division under the Department of Health Services said.

.Earlier on December 29, the government had demanded 1.5 million booster dose vaccines from the GAVI which had promised the supplies by February 2. 

The government decided to seek further doses of vaccines from the Gavi to administer the booster dose with the realization that the volume demanded earlier would be insufficient, Dahal said. “We hope GAVI will respond to us soon.” Nepal is receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech Bivalent booster from Gavi under the Covax-facility. 

The ministry has also urged all people to take booster doses in the wake of the fast spreading new variant of coronavirus, BF.7, in neighboring India and China. It has urged all to wear masks, maintain physical distance, use hand sanitizer regularly and wash hands with soap and water to reduce the risk of infection.

(RSS)

 
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