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Kathmandu, Nepal, June 22, 2021:Nepal’s vaccination drive against the global pandemic coronavirus likely to fall uncertain as the government has become success neither to buy additional does of coronaries vaccine nor to receive in grants even though attempts are made to this effect from different channels.
The Serum Institute of India Pvt Ltd has already denied supplying Covishield vaccines even though the government has already paid amounts for addition doses of Covishield vaccines.
The company has already stated that it would not be able to supply vaccines to any other country before 2022.
Even though the government of India has formulated a policy not to sell coronavirus vaccine to other counters, the company has no compulsion to abide by the government’s decision as the deal to sell vaccine to Nepal was made earlier of the decision and the amount was also already deposited.
It is alleged that hidden deal for commission amount was the reason behind the company’s decision not to sell the vaccine to the foreign countries.
Similarly, Nepal’s plan to buy coronavirus vaccine from China has also dragged into controversies. It is reported that the Nepal was planning to buy four million Sinopharm doses at $ 10 each under a non-disclosure agreement reached between Neal government and the Sinopharm Company.
As the so-called agreement disclosed, It is reported that China has become unhappy with Nepal for the discloser of rate. Even though Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has refuted the media reports about the process to buy coronavirus vaccines from China, media reports were widespread that the Sinopharm was planning to supply vaccine to Nepal as per the understanding reached between the government of Nepal and China.
Nepal has administered coronavirus vaccine just for the 731,653 people, who are mostly the frontline worker, since the vaccination drive was launched on January 27, 2021. This is just about 2.5 percent of the total population of Nepal.
According to the records provided by the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) as many as 2,500,196 people have received the first dose of the vaccine in the past five months. They have been waiting for their second dose of vaccine since March. However, there is no certain that how and when the people would get second doses of vaccine.
Owing to the vaccine shortage, President Bidya Devi Bhandari had written to the India, China, USA, UK, and Russia to secure the necessary vaccine supply. However, President’s request to China has only become fruitful. China had sent additional one million doses as a grant responding to the request of the president. However, other countries have not responded yet over the writing of the president Bhandari.
The United States of America (USA) has on Monday announced its plan to share 55 million of the 80 million Covid-19 vaccines as promised to the world by US President Joe Biden. Issuing a statement, the White House has stated that President Joe Biden's plan to allocate 55 million doses, part of the 80 million doses he had pledged to grant by June end.
According to the statement among the 55 million doses, around 41 million will be shared through COVAX, including approximately 14 million doses for Latin America and the Caribbean, approximately 16 million for Asia, and approximately 10 million for Africa. Nepal is one among the beneficiaries in Asia.
The White House has stated in the statement that the remaining about 14 million doses will be shared directly with ‘regional priorities and other recipients,’ including Afghanistan, Iraq, West Bank and Gaza.
As Nepal shorts vaccine despite rapid serge of coronavirus infection, Nepal would be kept into priority to provide vaccine through the COVAX but also from the USA that has allocated addition vaccine for ‘regional priorities and other recipients.’
