Kathmandu: The first consignment of Japan-made AstraZeneca vaccines is scheduled to arrive in Nepal on Saturday. The Japanese Embassy in Kathmandu said the second consignment will be airlifted on Saturday and is expected to arrive the next day.
A total of 800,000 vaccines will arrive in two consignments, according to the Embassy. Japan has donated about 1.6 million doses of the Japan-made Covid-19 AstraZeneca vaccine to Nepal as a grant through the COVAX facility.
The latter half of the Japanese-donated vaccines for Nepal will be shipped to Kathmandu in due course, under the arrangements with the relevant organizations, reads the statement issued by the Embassy.
Japanese Ambassador to Nepal Kikuta Yutaka hoped that the vaccines will be utilized expeditiously for the Covid-19 vaccination campaign, with good coordination by the Ministry of Health and Population of Nepal.
In this pandemic, the Embassy of Japan has been tackling Covid-19 together with the Nepal government to save more Nepali people’s lives. Ambassador Kikuta looks forward to working for the post-Covid society and economy of Nepal, reads the statement.
Those Japan-made AstraZeneca vaccines will effectively assist the second injection of elderly people who already had the first vaccination of Covishield, the AstraZeneca-type vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India. Nearly, 1.4 million elderly people are deprived of getting the second dose of Covishield vaccines after India refused to send a million doses of vaccines, which Nepal had already paid for.
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