COVID-19 vaccination campaign postponed until new batch of vaccines arrive in Nepal

KATHMANDU : Nepal has postponed the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 for the time being as the vaccine maker has failed to deliver the vaccines on time. The Family Welfare Division of the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has stated that the program has been postponed for some time as no additional vaccine has been received after the 1 million doses from India.

The remaining 100,000 doses of vaccine will be given to those above 55 years of age in the Himalayan districts where the density of population is low and people have missed the dose. Regular campaigns elsewhere are currently suspended.

As of Wednesday, 1.65 million people have been vaccinated in Nepal. The remaining 550,000 vaccines are kept in stock to inoculate the portion of population in the second phase who received their first dose between January 27 and February 22.  The government had earlier stated that it would continue the campaign with 1.9 million doses it received under the COVAX facility, 1 million purchased from India’s Serum Institute of India, 5 million doses of vaccines to be purchased again and 800,000 doses of vaccines to be received from China.

“We have postponed the campaign until the vaccine arrives in Kathmandu,” Dr Taranath Pokhrel, chief of the division told Republica on Wednesday.

Similarly, spokesperson of the MoHP, Dr Jageshwar Gautam said that the campaign had to be postponed for the time being because of uncertainty in the delivery of the vaccines. “There is a shortage of vaccines all over the world. It is not possible to say when will we be able to receive additional vaccines in Nepal,” he said.

Gautam also said that the time as to when the vaccine from China will arrive has not been decided yet. Nepal has not been able to bring the 800,000 vaccines given by China a month and a half ago. Additionally, the country has not received 1 million doses of vaccines that were scheduled to be delivered within March.

Republica