Nepal’s race to get population vaccinated

Nepal has till date received COVID vaccines enough for 3,624,000 people which can suffice for 14.49 per cent of the population.

The government has been administering vaccinations across the country with Vero Cell vaccines received from China and Janssen vaccines from the USA.

Around 3.2 million doses of vaccines against COVID-19 will arrive in Nepal from different countries by July 30, Deputy Spokesperson at the Ministry of Health and Population, Dr Samir Kumar Adhikari informed.

More vaccines will arrive from China on July 22, Dr Adhikari told NepalNews.

“Meanwhile, the vaccination drive is being carried out across the country with the 1.5 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines gifted by the USA,” Dr Adhikari said and added that 44,000 people on average have been vaccinated with the Janssen vaccine in two days.

The ministry had planned to administer Vero Cell vaccines to people above 55 years who have not received any vaccine. Others to receive the vaccines include teachers, lecturers, school and university staff; public transportation workers and people who have been involved in essential services and Nepali nationals bound to go abroad where vaccines are mandatory.

Likewise, Janssen single-dose vaccines had been planned for people in the age group of 50 to 54 who have not been vaccinated yet and others with disabilities (divided into groups 'Ka' and 'Kha'), refugees staying in Nepal; health professionals and other utility workers at health institutions.

Amidst reports that people bound for foreign countries were denied vaccination on Monday, Indira Gurung, Treasurer, at Nepal Association of Foreign Employment Agencies (NAFEA) said that those leaving the country for foreign employment have started receiving the single-jab Janssen vaccine from various health centres. She said there are around 40,000 Nepalis going abroad for foreign employment.

The Government of China on July 16 decided to provide Nepal with 1.6 million additional doses of anti-COVID vaccines as grant assistance.

Apart from the grant being offered by China, officials in Nepal have inked a non-disclosure agreement with Sinopharm, the state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical company, to buy 4 million doses of the Vero Cell vaccine. Nepal has already received 800,000 doses of vaccines on July 9.

Number of people vaccinated in Nepal

As of Tuesday, July 20, as many as 1,828,484 have been vaccinated with the first dose of Covishield vaccines while 460,734 others have received the second dose. Likewise, 1,322,472 people have been vaccinated with the first dose of Vero Cell vaccines 673,583 others have received the booster dose.

Similarly, around 44,000 people across the country have been vaccinated with Janssen vaccines in two consecutive days.

Apart from people vaccinated with single-shot Janssen, 1,136,217 people have been fully vaccinated as of Tuesday.

Nepal has a population of around 30 million of which 4 to 5 million people live abroad. 23,863,783 people have yet to get fully vaccinated while out of 3,150,956 people who have been vaccinated with the single dose of Covishield and Vero Cell, have yet to get booster dose.

Number of vaccines Nepal has received

Nepal started the vaccination drive against COVID-19 with the one million doses of Covishield received as a grant from India.

Likewise, India’s military provided 100,000 doses of Covishield for the Nepali Army personnel.

In February, Nepal again received one million doses of Covishield out of two million doses of purchase deal made with Serum Institute of India (SII) at $4 per dose.

Similarly, in the first week of March, Nepal received 348,000 doses of Covishield through the COVAX facility. China also provided 800,000 doses of Vero Cell at the end of March and another one million doses in June.

On July 12, Nepal received 1.5 million doses of single-shot Janssen vaccines as a gift from the USA.

This makes a total of 5,748,000 million doses of COVID vaccines that Nepal has received as of now. To sum up, Nepal has received vaccines enough for 3,624,000 people only which makes about 14.49 per cent of the population deducting those living abroad (The vaccines that expired have not been counted).

As per the Health Ministry, the government will have received another 3.2 million doses of vaccines by July 30, which will cover another 12.8 per cent of the total population.