Nepal on Friday granted approval for AstraZeneca's COVISHIELD vaccine against the novel coronavirus in the country. "Conditional permission has been granted for emergency use authorization of COVISHIELD vaccine against COVID-19 in Nepal," a statement by the country's Department of Drug Administration said. Nepal has reported 266,816 cases and 1,948 deaths from COVID-19 so far, according to official data. During the sixth meeting of the India-Nepal Joint Commission, Nepal congratulated India on the remarkable success in the production of Covishield and Covaxin vaccines in India and requested for early provision of vaccines to Nepal.India's biggest inoculation drive against the novel coronavirus will begin from tomorrow onwards. In the first phase, two indigenous vaccines, Covaxin and Covishield, will be administered to priority groups. Over one crore and 5.27 lakh people have been infected by the virus in India so far, and close to 1.52 lakh have died.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the inoculation drive at 10.30 am Saturday by addressing 3,006 vaccination sites across the country via video-conferencing. The priority groups include health workers, safai karmacharis, the Army and disaster management volunteers. The government has said around 100 people will receive shots at each of the 3,006 vaccination sites in the country on Saturday. The first phase of vaccination is likely to be completed in a few months. The vaccines being administered in the first phase will be free. “The Centre will bear the expenses for vaccinating the 3 crore priority population,” PM Narendra Modi had said earlier this week.