Source::Xinhua
KATHMANDU,
Over 400,000 Nepali people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 under the first phase of a vaccination drive, Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population said.
In a press statement on Wednesday, the ministry said a total of 429,705 people who were under the first priority list, were inoculated first doses of vaccine in the first phase.
"The second doses will be inoculated eight weeks after the first doses were inoculated," Dr. Shyam Raj Upreti, coordinator of the COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Committee under the health ministry, told Xinhua on Thursday.
The first phase of the vaccination drive had begun on Jan. 27 and ended on Monday.
The Nepali government received 1 million doses of Covishield vaccine on Jan. 21. Health workers, sanitization workers, journalists and staff in the diplomatic missions were vaccinated in the first phase.
According to the health ministry, as many as 1.4 percent of the around 30 million population of Nepal were inoculated the first doses of vaccine in the first phase.
The Nepali government is preparing to launch the second phase of vaccination drive. "We aim to inoculate first doses of vaccine to 3.7 million people aged above 55 years in the second phase," said Upreti. "During this vaccination drive, we hope to get additional vaccine doses from different sources."
Nepal is set to receive COVID-19 vaccine from China after China announced early this month that it would provide Nepal with the first batch of vaccine aid.
Last week, Nepal's drug regulator granted approval to the COVID-19 vaccine developed by China's Beijing Institute of Biological Products Co., Ltd, under Sinopharm, for emergency use in the country.
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