KATHMANDU – A consignment of 348,000 doses Covid vaccines under the Covax facility has arrived in Nepal.
The Covid vaccines provided to Nepal under the Covax scheme arrived in Kathmandu in a flight of Turkish Airlines.
Covax is a global initiative aimed at equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines led by Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI), the World Health Organization (WHO), the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and others.
Earlier on Saturday, Minister for Health and Population Hridayesh Tripathi had said that the first consignment of Covid vaccines under Covax facility will arrive on Sunday.
The Covax-supported AstraZeneca/Oxford vaccines, manufactured under license by Serum Institute of India, is expected to help Nepal in its second-phase of nationwide campaign to vaccinate its population.
In the second phase of the vaccination that kicked off today, the government is immunizing people above the age of 65.
India had gifted Nepal 1 million doses of Covid vaccines manufactured by the Serum Institute of India. Later, Nepal had also decided to purchase 2 million of Covishield from Serum Institute as part of phase-wise inoculation of its population on a priority basis.
