July 05, Kathmandu.
The 2.4 million doses of the Verosel vaccine purchased from the Chinese company
Sinoform will be delivered within the next three weeks.
The first batch of vaccines will arrive in Kathmandu on 8 July.
The Ministry of Health and Population said on July 6 that an
the agreement had been reached with Sinofarm to purchase a vaccine against Covid-19.
However, he did not want to divulge further details saying that it was
a 'non-disclosable agreement'. Adviser to the Prime Minister on
Foreign Affairs Rajan Bhattarai has made public the schedule of three flights for
vaccine supply on Sunday.
According to which, they will return on July 8 for the supply of vaccines.
Similarly, the plane that flew on July 16 will return on July 20 with vaccines.
The plane that left on July 22 to pick up the third and final consignment will return tomorrow.
According to sources, the aircraft of Nepal Airlines will bring 8 lakh 9 thousand
600 doses of vaccine at a time. Accordingly, 24 lakh 28 thousand 800 doses
of vaccine will reach Kathmandu in three games.
There will be two more flights to get the remaining 1.571 million doses of vaccine.
No flight date has been fixed for that.
"There is an agreement to buy 4 million vaccines.
All the vaccines will come soon," Bhattarai told online news.
He said there was a "non-disclosure agreement" between the two governments.
Ministry spokesperson Dr Krishna Poudel, on the other hand,
said that he has not received any information other than the arrival
of the vaccine since August 8. The ministry does not know how many vaccines
will be given. The ministry has only information that vaccinations will be
given again and again from July 8, 'he said.
Is the vaccine coming from elsewhere?
According to Dr Taranath Pokhrel, Chief of the Family Welfare
Division of the Health Services Department, a maximum of 1.5
a million doses of vaccine are expected to be received through Covax.
"A minimum of 350,000 doses of vaccine should be obtained through Covax.
But we expect to get more vaccinations than this. Coordination is being done
accordingly, 'says Dr Pokharel.
Earlier, Nepal had received 348,000 doses of vaccine through Covax.
The health ministry also offered to buy US vaccine companies.
The ministry had proposed to buy 5 million doses of the corona vaccine
from Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and 2 million doses from Moderna.
But before 2022, Nepal will not be able to supply vaccines against Covid-19.
This was stated by the representatives of the vaccine companies in a
virtual meeting held between the Ministry of Health and the representatives
of the vaccine manufacturing companies in coordination with the Nepalese
Embassy in the United States, according to the embassy's website.
The J&J representative replied that no corona vaccine purchase agreement could be
signed before 2022. Although the ministry had proposed to send the vaccine in
a limited and phased manner keeping in view the epidemic situation in Nepal,
the J&J representative assured to take the proposal to the leadership of the company.
Representatives from Moderna also commented that the company would not
be able to supply vaccines commercially until next year.
According to government officials, Novavax, which has recently completed
the third phase of clinical trials and is awaiting FDA approval has also recently stated
that it will not be able to provide the vaccine to Nepal.
So far, Nepal has received a total of 4.2 million doses, including 1.8 million doses
from China, 1.1 million from India, 1 million from the procurement process and
348,000 through the Covax program.
