72 percent people will have access to COVID-19 vaccine, says Govt.

Kathmandu- The Government of Nepal (GoN) is preparing to vaccinate 72 per cent of the country’s total population against COVID-19.

Associate Spokesman at the Ministry of Health and Population Dr Sameer Kumar Adhikari says the plan is to vaccinate all except the children below 15 as the vaccine has not been tested on children so far.Dr Adhikari said the children would also be vaccinated once the tests on people above 15 years of age were successful.

The GoN has planed to vaccinate 20 per cent of the population in the first phase.

The Ministry has prepared to bring the anti-COVID-19 vaccines under the ‘COVAX Facility’ mechanism comprising of three organizations- the Word Health Organization (WHO), Global Vaccine Alliance (GAVI) and CEPI.

Coordinator of the COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Committee, Dr Shyam Raj Uprety said diplomatic letters have been sent on 4^th of December for the vaccines to be brought through COVAX Facility.

Out of the 20 per cent vaccines coming in the first lot, three per cent would be given to health workers, security personnel and the elderly people.

The GoN will bring the rest 52 per cent vaccines through the government-to-government channel from diplomatic missions as per the public procurement regulations and through contract.

Dr Uprety says the government has allocated 48 billion rupees for the purchase of the vaccines.