Japan to distribute another 287,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine on Sunday
The Nepal government on Saturday received more than half a million doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from Japan, as the number of new coronavirus cases continued to rise in the Himalayan nation.
Under its grant-in-aid program, Japan has pledged to donate 1.6 million doses of the vaccine to Nepal.
The first batch containing 513,420 doses of the Japan-made vaccine arrived at Kathmandu’s Tribhuvan International Airport on a Qatar Airways flight on Saturday, the health ministry said in a statement here.
Japan will distribute another 287,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Sunday, the statement said.
The remaining 800,000 doses will reach Nepal by next week. These vaccines will be given to senior citizens who have already received their first shot of the Kovidshield vaccine.
There has been a steady increase in the number of new coronavirus cases in Nepal over the past month.
The Ministry of Health and Population said on Saturday that 3,218 new cases have been detected and 19 related deaths have been registered in the last 24 hours.
Now the COVID-19 case tally is 780,807 and the death toll is 10,038. A total of 667,270 people have recovered from the disease in the country.
There are 35,432 active COVID-19 cases.
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