KATHMANDU: State Minister for Health Umesh Shrestha has assured that the government will bring 20 million doses of vaccines within the next two and a half months. Announcing a 23-point action plan, he said that the government had procured the vaccine under the Covax facility.
According to the state minister, 20 million doses of vaccines will arrive into the country by mid-October and 52.2 million by January. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, he said that among the 15 million vaccines which have been decided to come to Nepal under the Covax facility, the process of 4 million has already been started.
He claimed that every citizen of Nepal would be vaccinated by 2078 BS adding that the process has been started accordingly. The government is also seeking a loan of USD 165 million from the Asian Development Bank to buy the vaccine.
Last year, Covisheild vaccination campaign was launched in Nepal from the second week of January with the help of the Government of India. However, the vaccination campaign was affected after India failed to deliver the vaccine Nepal had purchased. Even now, 1.348 million people are yet to be vaccinated with the second dose of covishield vaccine.
Stating that the AstraZeneca vaccine is sure to arrive from Japan in two weeks, Minister of State, Shrestha said that Covishield will be given to those who have already received the first dose of vaccine.