Nepal will include all adults by mid-April: Minister of Health Coronavirus pandemic News

The Ministry of Health records that 44% of Nepali adults have received at least one dose and 37.5% are fully vaccinated.

Nepal will get enough vaccines to immunize all adults against COVID-19 by mid-April and is targeting doses in remote mountainous areas of the Himalayan nation, the health minister said.

The government will hire staff and set up vaccination centers to meet the target, Health Minister Birod Khatiwada told the Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday.

“We will meet our goal or we will exceed our goal because we are already getting enough vaccines,” said Khatiwada, who was appointed last month.

“We will hire more health workers to reach all the remote corners of the country and reach new populations so that new vaccination centers can be established.”

Nepal’s immunization campaign began in January with vaccines provided by neighboring India, but came to a halt when India faced a devastating rise in COVID-19 and halted vaccine exports.

Health ministry records show that 44% of Nepali adults have received at least one dose, and 37.5% have been fully vaccinated.

Adults make up 72 percent of Nepal’s 30 million population.

So far, only people over the age of 18 have been vaccinated, but the country wants to immunize 12- to 17-year-olds when doses are available.

With the cessation of vaccines in India, China took part, selling millions of doses. Nepal also received vaccines from the United States through the United Nations COVAX distribution facility.

However, Nepal’s shortage has continued throughout the year, and when vaccine centers have opened, the influx of people seeking immunization has overwhelmed them.

Khatiwada said about 22 million doses have been administered and expects to reach another 30 million doses in the coming months.

“The cabinet this week approved a proposal to buy 6 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine from the United States, while Moderna is receiving another 4 million vaccines,” Khatiwada said, adding that another 6 million doses were purchased from China.

China has offered another 2 million vaccines as a gift, while Switzerland is giving half a million doses.

“We will not be without vaccines, but now our main concern and focus is to get these vaccines to all corners of the country, including remote mountainous areas,” he said.

Nepal faced the worst crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic in April, when hospitals were overcrowded with patients cared for in garages and parking lots, and people waited in long lines to get oxygen cylinders.

The government has imposed several blockades and has repeatedly been criticized for managing the situation.

Nepal has reported more than 815,000 cases of coronavirus and 11,460 deaths.