The government is prepared to execute an agreement to buy a further six million doses of Vero Cell Vaccine from China as the Nepalese immunization program is progressive.
Multiple Post officers revealed that the government will soon negotiate a contract with the state-sponsored Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinopharm, which produces the Covid-19 vaccine.
“We’re extremely near to a contract for a further six million doses of China vaccine,” a senior health official told the post office requesting not to be named. “We’re close to a deal.
In June, under a non-disclosure agreement with the Chinese firm, the government bought and delivered four million doses of vaccine. Nepal has gotten 1,6 million doses so far and the other injections are expected in the next couple of days from Beijing.
The first vaccination delivery was made on 9 July and the second delivery was sent on 22 July.
China has stated that China is supplying an extra 1.6 million doses of the BBIBP-CorV vaccine that Sinopharm produces under grant support.
Dr. Tara Nath Pokhrel, Director of Family Welfare, Health Services Division, told the Post that “we asked the vaccine producer to offer more reductions as we obtain more doses. “As the administration is committed to the largest number of individuals as quickly as possible, an agreement is expected to be made to get extra Vero Cell vaccine doses in the near future.”
The Health Ministry said the new 6-million doses contract will also be subject to an agreement not to divulge the price per dosage, as required by the Chinese vaccine producer.
In addition to Chinese transportations, officials estimate 1,6 million AstraZeneca doses to come from Japan via the UN-backed COVAX facility in a week’s time.
„The initial doses of the Covishield vaccine, but booster injections are deprived of for a lengthy period of time will be administered to about 1.4 million persons aged 65 years and above,” Pokhrel added.
From 7 to 15 March, the Ministry of Santé delivers 1 million doses of vaccine from the Serum Institute of India and 348,000 from the COVAX plant. The AstraZeneca vaccine was delivered to older people for the first dosage.
Although Nepal paid 2 million doses of the vaccine on the market at Serum Institute under the Covishield brand, it did not provide the remaining dosage, as India restricted the export to the country of millions and kills hundreds of thousands of vaccines following a devastating second wave of coronavirus, which in April infected millions of patients.
“We still don’t know when the Indian Serum Institute would deliver the vaccination that we bought,” Pokhrel added. “We heard that the discussions in the leadership of politics were good but we don’t know when this is going to be done.”
Indian Premier Narendra Modi told India that vaccine supplies would soon begin during his telephone discussion with Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba.
An official from the Ministry of Health has claimed that discussions are also underway to get the vaccine from Pfizer and the production firm is happy to sell it to Nepal.
The officer from the Department of Health Services informed the Post that, in order to acquire the vaccination of Pfizer, we have to enhance our vaccine storage and not be known.
The US Food and Drug Administration allows the storage of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine at normal refrigerator temperature (2 to 8 degrees Celsius) for up to a month. Earlier it was said that vaccines made by Pfizer needed to be kept at minus 70 degrees Celsius.
With the receiving of vaccine in Nepal, storing capacity has been a concern as only 1 million doses of Chinese vaccine can be stored at 2-8 degrees Celsius per vial at the central vaccine storage facility in Kathmandu, at dosage per vial.
“We can no longer apologize for our ability to store vaccines,” claimed the Health Services Department officials. “We have to and we’re going to do it, since we have a large population to immune.”
The Ministry of Health is preparing the Covid-19 vaccination for anyone over 18 years.
The newly appointed secretary of the Ministry of Health, Dr Roshan Pokhrel, told the mail. “Priorities will include those who have applied for the vaccination online.”
However, just 1.4 million people have registered their immunization names to date.
“I want everybody to fill out an online vaccination form,” he added.
The government aims to provide as many individuals as possible with the first dose provided the manufacturing firm guarantees the prompt arrival of the other dose. according to P0khrel, Family Welfare Division.
The first dosage of the Covid-19 vaccine was delivered to 3377228 individuals, with 1,366,046 of them completely vaccinated. The single injections of the 1,5 million dosages Johnson & Johnson vaccine granted by the US via the COVAX system are considered to be completely immunized.
Apparently, the Government has included those aged 50 years and over in the vaccination campaign, in addition to priority groups such as health workers, public representatives, bank staff, financial institutions, and migrant workers, but inoculation with people with influences in order of the vaccine Covid-19 has not been uniform.
In April, Nepal had a second wave that claimed over 6,500 lives. In most of the nation, the government implemented prohibitive measures and from 29 April in Kathmandu. But from June the orders were progressively loosened by Saturday reinstating long-distance bus trips.
However, with public transportation resumed and market reopening, the number of new cases continues to increase as life is back to more or less normal.
In 10.625 polymerase chain reaction tests and an additional 805 positive tests in 4.285 antigen testing, 2,309 individuals tested positive on Saturday. The PCR tests are more than 22 percent every day, which doctors claim to be extremely high.
So far, 679,019 persons have had coronavirus infections, including 9,695 deaths due to complications associated with Covid-19. The number of deaths is 16 on Saturday.
According to the ministry, there are more than 500 active cases in 10 districts including three districts in the valley, and more than 200 cases in 26 districts active.
Above the previous week, the Ministry noted, the number of districts with active cases has grown over 500 and 200.
Experts from public health advise authorities should do all possible to acquire and give vaccinations to the public as soon as they can, since the country may be in the first stage of the third pandemic wave.
“An epidemiologist, Dr. Biraj Karmacharya, told the Post that vaccines should be provided as soon as feasible and to as many individuals as possible. “The third wave will not be awful, we don’t know. We should strive to inoculate as many individuals as possible before the third wave strikes the country.”