Nepal planning to purchase 2 million Covid-19 vaccines from India

Nepal is all set to start the second phase of COVID-19 vaccination drive for people aged above 55 years from March 7, the health minister has said, as the country is planning to purchase an additional 2 million doses of vaccine from India.

As many as 14,000 vaccinators, including the mobile teams, will be mobilised to inoculate the largest chunk of the population, Health Ministry officials said, adding all people in this age group have been placed in the second priority group.

People's trust in the vaccines is increasing and the rule of priority is strictly followed in inoculation, Minister for Health and Population Hridayesh Tripathi told the media on Sunday.

"I am eligible to receive a vaccine on March 7 as per the rule of priority. There is no rule to vaccinate important people first. The government will not carry out vaccination in an anarchic way," he said.

Nepal government has acquired one million dozes of Covishield vaccine from India. The government is also purchasing another two million dozes of covishield from India. Similarly, China has also offered to donate 500,000 dozes of vaccines to Nepal.

In the first phase of vaccination drive, the government-administered vaccines to frontline workers including health and security personnel from January 27 to February 6.

Minister Tripathi said it was a significant achievement for Nepal to vaccinate the priority group of people as well as starting the second priority group at a time when more than 100 countries across the globe are still not having access to vaccines.

Secretary at the Health Ministry Laxman Aryal said the second phase of vaccination would be executed through health institutions.

He informed the provincial governments and local levels will undertake the vaccination drive and the mobile teams will even reach the doorsteps.

In January, India handed over one million doses of COVID-19 vaccine to Nepal under grant assistance in sync with its Neighbourhood First' policy. Indian Ambassador to Nepal Vinay Mohan Kwatra handed over the vaccine consignment to Prime Minister K P Sharma Oli during a function at the Prime Minister's residence at Baluwatar.

Nepal gave conditional approval to use Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield vaccine manufactured by the Serum Institute of India in January.

The approval coincided with the sixth meeting of the India-Nepal Joint Commission in New Delhi which was attended by Nepalese Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali.

India is one of the world's biggest drugmakers, and an increasing number of countries have already approached it for procuring the coronavirus vaccines.

Nepal has reported 274,216 COVID-19 cases, including 2,777 deaths.