The Ministry of Health and Population has decided to use Covishield/AstraZeneca vaccine as the booster shot for people above 60 years of age even if they had received other shots — Moderna, Pfizer, or Vero Cell — in the past.
A total of 3,072,387 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in Nepal on Monday. According to Dr Surendra Chaurasia, chief of the Logistic Management Section under the Department of Health Services 1,870,500 doses of Covishield have arrived from India.
According to the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), the first dose is scheduled to be given to people above 18 years and pregnant women above three months. Covishield, Vero Cell, and Astra Zeneca vaccine are being given to the denizens.
KATHMANDU, August 8: Additional 300 thousand doses of AstraZeneca vaccine provided by Japan to Nepal on grant arrived in Kathmandu today. According to the Secretary at the Ministry of Health and Population, Dr Roshan Pokhrel, on Saturday, Nepal had received 500 thousand doses of vaccines from Japan which has announced to gift 1.6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine under the COVAX facility.
The remaining doses of vaccine will be arriving after a week. It may be noted that on Friday, Nepal had received 230 thousand doses of Covishield vaccine from Bhutan. The COVID-19 vaccines received from Japan will be administered to those citizens who have got the first dose of Covishield.
To date, around 10 million doses of vaccines (gifted and purchased) have arrived in the country. Nepal has bought four million doses of China-manufactured Vero Cell and two million doses of Covishield from India. But, one million doses of vaccine is yet to be supplied from India. Similarly, 1.1 million doses of Covishield have been obtained from India on grant and China has so far gifted 1.8 million doses of Vero Cell to Nepal.
Likewise, Nepal had received 348 thousand doses of Covishield under the GAVI facility and 1.53 million doses of Janssen & Janssen vaccines from the United States of America in gift. With the regular supplies of vaccines, the government had added COVID-19 vaccination centers. Now the number of such centers stands at 4,422 against 2,989 of the earlier. The Kathmandu Valley alone has 149 vaccinations centers against 83 of the past.
KATHMANDU, June 13: As many as 691,494 Nepalis have received both doses of the vaccine against the coronaviru disease since the country initiated inoculation drive earlier on January 27.
According to the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), a total of 2,38,098 people from across the country have so far been administered the first shot of the vaccine.
Nepal is administering the China-made and donated Vero Cell vaccines to the people between 60 and 64 years of age in the latest phase of the vaccination drive.
At least 1.4 million are waiting for the second dose of Covishield vaccine.
KATHMANDU, June 7: The government is preparing to administer the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine as an alternative to the booster dose the Covishield vaccine.
The government ‘s decision comes after the Serum Institute of India, the manufacturing company of Covishield vaccine and the COVAX Facility expressed inability to supply additional quantities of Covishield vaccines to Nepal for the time being.
The Ministry of Health and Population (MOHP) is planning to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine for those waiting for the booster shot of Covishield as both vaccines are similar in nature and composition.
Director of Family Welfare Division, Department of Health Services, Dr Taranath Pokhrel said that AstraZeneca will be provided to those receiving the first jab of Covishield as both vaccines were developed by the same company being based on the same formula and methodology and it would make no difference in giving the AstraZeneca as an alternative to the Covishield.
The vaccination schedule is yet to be fixed. The booster or second dose is to be taken after 12-16 weeks of getting the first shot.
\Around 1.4 million people above 65 years of age were provided the first shot of Covishield from 7th March to 23rd March. They are waiting for the final shot as the Serum Institute of India expressed its inability to supply one million doses of vaccines that Nepal had procured from the company for the time being in view of the increasing infections rate in India.
So far in Nepal, the number of the population receiving the first shot of COVID-19 jab stands at 2.13 million while 691,184 have received the full course. The government is administering the China –manufactured Vero Cell to the people from 60-64 age group from tomorrow, Tuesday.
