The government is administering the second dose of Vero Cell vaccine to people aged 55 and above across the country from today.
According to the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), people above 55 years of age and those having previously received the first dose of the vaccines from July 6 are eligible to get their second dose.
Meanwhile, around 300,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine provided by the Bhutanese government have arrived in Kathmandu today morning.
Bhutan has vaccinated all its eligible citizens and has given its surplus vaccines to Nepal.
It is not yet clear that the vaccines are grant assistance or loan to Nepal government.
The newly arrived vaccines will be administered to the senior citizens who have yet to receive their second shot of the Covishield vaccine. Nepal government had administered the first dose of AstraZeneca to about 1.4 million senior citizens in mid-March.
The Family Welfare Division is preparing to send the jabs to various districts.
Bhutan — with the population of 780,000 — had received 500,000 doses of Moderna, 5,850 Pfizer and 250,000 AstraZeneca vaccines from the United States under the COVAX program.
Other countries including Croatia, Bulgaria had also provided Bhutan with 100,000 doses of AstraZeneca and 50,000 doses of Sinopharm under the COVAX programme.
At a time when the number of COVID-19 cases is increasing saily in Nepal, the government has announced to celebrate ‘Vaccination Week’.
During Thursday’s meeting of the Education and Health Committee under the House of Representatives (HoR), Minister of State for Health and Population Umesh Shrestha said that Nepal would celebrate the vaccination week beginning from August 9.
For the weeklong vaccination campaign, Kathmandu will have 150 COVID-19 vaccination centers, Lalitpur 77 and Bhaktapur 38, according to Shrestha.
State Minister Shrestha also said that the country would receive 10.5 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by mid-October.
On the occasion, State Minister Shrestha stated that Nepal is soon to receive 800,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Japan and 300,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines from Bhutan.
Similarly, MoHP is launching a nation-wide facemask drive from August 7 to 13. As people are ignoring the health safety protocols despite growing risk, the public will be made aware about the proper use and benefit of wearing a facemask, informed MoHP deputy spokesperson Dr Samir Kumar Adhikari.
