COVID-19 Vaccination Drive Officially Begins in Nepal

Nepal on Wednesday 27 January 2021 rolled out its vaccination drive against Covid-19, a little over a year after the country reported its first coronavirus case.

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has inaugurated the Covid-19 vaccination drive in Nepal from his official residence in Baluwatar.

According to officials, around 430,000 frontline workers–health workers, supporting staffers at health facilities, female community health volunteers, security personnel, sanitation workers, elderly people living in care homes, and prisoners–will be inoculated in 65 districts across the country.

The campaign has officially begun through a virtual announcement of its commencement from 11 different hospitals in the capital.

The vaccination drive has been launched with the one million doses of Covid-19 vaccine that India provided to Nepal last week under grant assistance.

India provided one million doses of the vaccine jointly developed by the University of Oxford and the pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and produced in India by the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine manufacturer.

The government has said it is committed to immunizing 72 percent of the total population. The vaccine cannot be administered to children under 14, whose population in Nepal is 28 percent.

By Asian Hiking Team