Nepal's caretaker Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has expressed his gratitude towards India for providing one million dosages of Covishield vaccine within a week of its rollout in India.
Addressing the inauguration ceremony of the inoculation drive in Kathmandu, Oli thanked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing vaccine doses to Nepal.
"We got an early chance to administer the COVID-19 vaccine. For this, I extend my gratitude to our neighbour: India, its people and government and especially to Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They sent the vaccine to us within about a week of its roll out in India," Oli said.
Addressing a virtual inauguration ceremony of nationwide immunisation drive against COVID-19 from Baluwatar, Oli also announced that the vaccine drive to inoculate the people of Himalayan Nation would be completed within three months.
The government is inoculating frontline workers fighting against COVID-19 from 62 hospitals and 120 vaccination centres across the country.
In the first phase of the vaccination drive, the government is inoculating the 'Covishield' vaccine gifted by India to around 450,000 frontline workers, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.
Last week, the Government of India gifted a million doses of the 'Covishied' vaccine to Nepal. The vaccine was jointly developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca -- a British-Swedish pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company. It has been branded as 'Covishield' in India, and is produced by the Serum Institute of India.
According to the ministry, the vaccine has already been dispatched to almost 70 districts as of Tuesday.
The government, on January 15, granted emergency approval for 'Covishield'. The vaccine can be stored for six months at a temperature between two to eight degrees Celsius.
The government has planned to vaccinate 72 per cent of the country's total population against COVID-19. Almost 28 per cent of the country's population is below the age of 15 years, and does not need to be vaccinated.
( With inputs from ANI )
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