Even while the Ministry of Health has assured the public that there will be enough free Covid-19 vaccines for everyone above 18, the government is still vague about when that will happen.
Nearly 150,000 of the 430,000 in the first phase have already been vaccinated with the Astra Zeneca Covishield made by the Serum Institute of India. More than 2.25 million of this vaccine is expected to arrive under the World Health Organisation’s COVAX initiative.
The first lot of 1 million vaccines was gifted by the Indian government on 21 January, but the rest of the doses will be needed for the booster shots in two weeks, and there is 6% wastage.
The Chinese government has also promised to gift 300,000 doses of its own Sinopharm vaccine, but the timetable for that is also unknown. Nepal has not ordered vaccines from any other company or country.
“We will administer the vaccines that are already here, and give the jabs as new COVAX vaccines arrive,” Health Ministry spokesperson Jageshwar Gautam said, “but they will not be coming all at once, we have to depend on the international supply chain, and have to adhere to our guidelines on which vaccines are affordable and available.”
Gautam said the next consignments should start arriving later this month, and stretch into 2021. Frontline health workers, ambulance drivers, female community health volunteers, those working in senior citizens’ homes, security officials and prisoners were the first priority, but they make up only 3% of the population that need to be vaccinated.
Covishield is being administered from 143 centres in all 77 districts, and there will not be enough for everyone in the first phase since there are 911,000 people on the Minister of Health’s priority list of those eligible.
The ministry is readying to vaccinate 5.154 million people in the second phase, which is 17% of the target population. The priority will be those above 55 years of age, and those in the 40-54 age group with chronic diseases.
In the third phase it will be the rest of those aged 40-54 who total 2.9 million, which is 9.55% of the population. Then it will be the turn of all 12.78 million in the 18-39 age group who will get their jabs next, and they form 42% of the population. Those under 18 will not get the vaccine until safety issues are cleared up.
Gautam says that completing all four phases may take as long as late 2022, because the timetable for inoculations will depend on the availability of various vaccines in the world market. He added that all vaccines will be free to Nepali citizens, and the government will not be buying the vaccine doses from private companies, but will rely on government-to-government agreements, or through the World Health Organization’s COVAX program.
Government sources have hinted that the second phase will conducted with an additional Indian grant of 1 million doses of the Bharat Biotech Covaxin which has been approved for restricted emergency use in India. However, there has been no official confirmation yet.
Just to be sure, the Ministry of Health is said to be also trying to buy 1 million doses of the vaccines from India at a discounted rate, even though Covaxin has not yet completed third phase trials and has not been approved by the WHO.
The Chinese Embassy has confirmed that the 300,000 doses of its Sinopharm vaccines will be a gift, but has not given a specific timeframe. Although the Sinopharm has regulator approval for emergency use in China, Nepali authorities have not yet done so.
Covaxin is India’s first locally produced vaccine and can be stored at normal refrigeration temperature of 2-8 Celsius, which makes it even more ideal for Nepal’s conditions. The Ministry is said to be sourcing 20% of vaccines in Nepal from Bharat Biotech. This week the company signed an agreement with Ocugen to co-develop and market the vaccine in the United States.
Because of the ‘vaccine divide’ with rich countries hoarding or reserving most of the available supply, poor countries like Nepal will need to coordinate closely with the World Health Organization-initiated COVAX, the only global inter-governmental initiative working with manufacturers to ensure Covid-19 vaccines are available to developing countries. Under COVAX, Nepal is expected to get 2.25 million Covishield vaccines from India.
The limiting factor for Nepal is that the vaccines should be available, affordable, of the kind that do not need extreme refrigeration, and a cold chain not less than 20 Celsius. The government has also asked those who can afford to buy vaccines to do so, and the money will be used to buy doses for people who cannot afford the injections.
Meanwhile, there were only 142 cases of coronavirus among 2,650 that were tested on Tuesday – 57 of them in Kathmandu Valley. There are now fewer than 2,400 active cases in Nepal, with most of them in Kathmandu Valley. The number of patients in ICU has dropped to 61, with 17 of them on ventilator support. There were two days with no fatalities this week, and one person died from coronavirus on Wednesday.
Overseas, three more Nepalis died of Covid-19 this week, bringing the total number of reported deaths in the diaspora to 330. According to Sanjiv Sapkota of the Non-resident Nepalese Association (NRNA) 58,695 Nepalis in 50 countries had tested positive for coronavirus as of 30 January.
As a new strain of Covid-19 sweeps Europe, the NRNA has issued guidelines on safety precautions, vaccines and also its side-effects. Sapkota, who heads NRNA’s Health Committee warned Nepalis abroad that even those who have been vaccinated can still transmit the disease, so continued precaution was necessary.
The new fatalities and infections among Nepalis were reported this week from the UK, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Portugal, Nigeria. This comes even as the Covid-19 cases in Nepal continued to drop.
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