In its press release today, the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) informed that the Pfizer vaccination campaign has to be paused because of the lack of syringes needed to administer the Pfizer vaccines.
The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has stated that it will conduct a vaccination campaign for second dose of Pfizer vaccine against coronavirus from February 7 to 17.
KATHMANDU, Dec 19: Minister for Health and Population Birodh Khatiwada has launched COVID-19 vaccination campaign for school children today.
Minister Khatiwada formally rolled out the vaccination campaign from the Hetauda Sub metropolis-based Bhutandevi Secondary School in Makwanpur.
Under the latest drive, children aged between 12 and 17 are being administered the US-made Moderna vaccines.
On the occasion, Khatiwada announced that no Nepali citizen would be deprived of COVID-19 vaccine, according to his press advisor Shantaram Bidari.
He said the campaign would continue until it covers all eligible children. It is said arrangements have been mostly made from the district level for the vaccination.
The government campaign to vaccinate children aged 12 to 17 kicked off in 57 districts of seven provinces on Sunday itself.
In the case of eight districts of three provinces, the campaign will be held on December 28-January 6, 2022 and the Pfizer vaccine will be given in those districts. They are Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Kavre, Sindhuli, and Chitwan in the Bagmati Province, Surkhet of Karnali Province and Dadeldhura of Sudur Paschim Province.
As per the government’s vaccination schedule, the second dose will be given from January 18 to 27, 2022.
A committee comprising the Chief District Officer and the local government head has been formed to establish the vaccination center within the school. In schools having a smaller number of students, a center will be set up for two-three schools, it is said.
KATHMANDU: The government is administering the Pfizer vaccines against COVID-19 in Nepal from Sunday.
The vaccine is being administered to people with chronic diseases and who are older than 12 years old.
According to Sagar Dahal, chief of the Immunization Section under the Department of Health Service, the Pfizer vaccine, received in a grant from the COVAX facility, will be administered to more than 50,000 people with chronic diseases.
Those receiving the first dose will be administered the second dose within 21 to 28 days of receiving their first dose.
Earlier, Nepal received 100,620 doses of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines from COVAX.
It has been made mandatory to possess a medical report of chronic disease issued by hospitals or medics to receive the vaccine.
The vaccination drive is being carried out at24 vaccine centers including eight in Kathmandu Valley and 16 out of the valley.
KATHMANDU, November 13: The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has said that the Pfizer vaccine is found 95 percent effective against COVID-19 and urged the people to feel safe and confident for the vaccination.
Ministry Spokesperson Dr Krishna Prasad Poudel said this during an awareness campaign on Pfizer vaccination. The awareness campaign was organized by the Department of Health Service.
The first phase of the Pfizer vaccination drive is beginning from Sunday (November 14). After the weeklong drive, the second phase would begin from December 12.
“Initially, the vaccines would be administered to people above 12 year, suffering from chronic disease. Various 24 hospitals from across the country would administer the vaccines,” said Director General at the Department, Dr Dipendra Raman Singh. He further said the government was procuring 6 million doses of Pfizer to vaccinate the children above 12 year.
“Pfizer was a different vaccine from others. It has been used in 132 countries including Nepal” said Sagar Dahal, chief of the Child Health and Immunization Section. “It is safe and effective,” he added.
Dahal also assured that although the vaccinated ones may witness the problems of nausea, fever, headache, joint pain, it would fizzle out in two to three days with the intake of Cetamol.
RSS
Dr Krishna Prasad Poudel said that the Pfizer vaccination against COVID-19 is 95 percent effective and urged people to feel safe and confident for the vaccination.
Aug 19: The effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 declines faster than that of the AstraZeneca jab, according to a new study published on Thursday.
"Two doses of Pfizer-BioNTech have greater initial effectiveness against new COVID-19 infections, but this declines faster compared with two doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca," researchers at Oxford University said.
The study, which has not been peer reviewed, is based on the results of a survey by Britain's Office for National Statistics that carried out PCR tests from December last year to this month on randomly selected households.
It found that "the dynamics of immunity following second doses differed significantly" between Pfizer and AstraZeneca, according to the university's Nuffield Department of Medicine.
Pfizer had "greater initial effectiveness" but saw "faster declines in protection against high viral burden and symptomatic infection", when looking at a period of several months after full vaccination, although rates remained low for both jabs.
"Results suggest that after four to five months effectiveness of these two vaccines would be similar," the scientists added, while stressing that long-term effects need to be studied.
The study's findings come as Israel is administering booster shots, after giving 58 percent of the population two shots of the Pfizer jab.
The United States is also set to offer booster vaccines to boost antibody levels following concerns over declining effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
The Oxford research also found that protection was higher among those who had already been infected with the virus.
The study examined two groups of more than 300,000 people over 18, first during the period dominated by the Alpha variant, which emerged in Kent, southeast England, and secondly from May 2021 onwards, when the Delta variant has been dominant.
It confirmed that vaccines are less effective against Delta, which was first seen in India. The AstraZeneca vaccine is the most widely offered in the UK, while those under 40 are offered Pfizer or Moderna due to blood clotting concerns.