Nepal begins second phase of inoculations with Indian made vaccine against COVID-19

Nepal on Tuesday rolled out its second phase of inoculations with Indian-made vaccine against COVID-19.

Citing the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), Khabarhub reported that in the second drive, the Covishield vaccine would be administered to journalists, officials at the diplomatic missions, and frontline government employees.

Dr Shyamraj Uprety, Nepal's Coordinator of the COVID-19 Vaccination Advisory Committee shared that the Covishield vaccine provided by the Indian government under the grant assistance will be administered to as many as 300,000 frontline journalists, diplomats, and government employees in the second phase, Khabarhub reported.

Although the plan had it that a total of 430,000 doses of vaccine would be administered in the first phase, only 184,857 individuals had received the vaccine, informed Uprety.

According to Uprety, the second phase of vaccination would continue until coming Friday, and around 300,000 individuals would be vaccinated in this phase.

"The data of employees working at the frontline except for the journalists and the diplomatic mission staffs is going ahead. They would also be inoculated after two or three days," Khabarhub quoted Dr Uprety as saying.

The first drive of vaccination had begun on January 27.

The priorities in the first phase were frontline medical workers, station workers, ambulance drivers, hearse drivers, and security officials while in the second drive, the officials from the administrative units across the country, staffers at the Offices of the Land Revenue and Offices of the Survey, bankers, and journalists has been prioritised.

The Government of Nepal on January 15 approved the use of Covishield developed by the Serum Institute of India (SII) for emergency use.

Nepal began its nationwide inoculation drive after receiving one million Covishield vaccines, manufactured by the SII from the Indian government.

( With inputs from ANI )