Nepal begins Covid-19 vaccination drive

27 January 2021

Sagar Rajbhandari reveives covid vaccine — Dr Sagar Rajbhandari, director of Sukraraj Tropical and Infectious Disease Hospital, Teku was the first of the frontline workers to receive the jab. Photo: ROSHAN SAPKOTA/RSS

Nepal started vaccinating health and security workers against Covid-19 on Wednesday, using some of the 1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccines donated by India on 20 January.

Prime Minister K P Oli launched the drive virtually via video, Sagar Rajbhandari, a physician at the Teku Infectious Diseases Hospital being the first to receive the jab.

Prime Minister K P Oli and Health Minister Hridayesh Tripathi at the formal launch of Nepal’s Covid-19 vaccination program. Photo: Pradeep Raj Onta/RSS

The Health Ministry has prepared a list of 430,000 health personnel who will get their first dose this week. Also included will be senior citizens, police and army as well as female community health volunteers all over the country.

The AstraZeneca vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India is said to be ideal for Nepali conditions because it does not need an extreme cold chain, and is cheaper.

Nepal plans to buy 4 million of the Covshield vaccines in the second phase of its inoculation drive.

The number of fatalities from Covid-19 in Nepal crossed the 2,000 mark last week, although the number of active cases has dropped to less than 4,000. There are still 200 patients in ICU all over the country, with 120 of them on ventilators.

Jabs and jab-nots, Buddha Basnyat