KATHMANDU – Covid vaccines donated by China to Nepal have arrived in Kathmandu. 800,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccines gifted by China arrived in Kathmandu at 8:45 am via an aircraft of Nepal Airlines.
Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi handed over the vaccines to Minister for Health and Population Hridayesh Tripathi amid a small ceremony at the airport.
Though China had first announced that it would provide Nepal 300,000 vaccines as gifts to Nepal in January and later increased the quantity to 800,000 in March, there were delays in the delivery of the vaccines.
Following the announcement of China, Nepal’s drug regulator Department of Drug Administration on February 17 had granted approval for the emergency use of COVID-19 vaccine developed by China’s Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co. Ltd, under Sinopharm.
This was the second Covid vaccine that Nepal has authorized for the emergency use in the country. While Nepal had received one million doses of Covid vaccines from Indian government, the Government of Nepal had decided to purchase 2 million doses of Covishield from the vaccine manufacturer the Serum Institute of India.
Out of two million doses ordered by the Government of Nepal, the Serum Institute of India has delivered only one million doses. As Serum Institute failed to deliver remaining vaccines, the government halted it vaccination campaign due to the shortage of jabs.
