Germany has donated around 1,965,600 doses of the Moderna vaccine as well as 2,176,650 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine vaccines to Nepal through the COVAX facility.

Similarly, Germany had also supported the procurement of ultra-low temperature freezers, procured through UNICEF.

“We can only get over this worldwide pandemic together. Therefore, from the very beginning, Germany has been supporting the multilateral platform ACT-A/CO- VAX and is today the second biggest donor. We are proud that we can now share more than 4.1 million doses of COVID vaccines with the people of Nepal. With these vaccines more than 10 per cent of the population can get fully vaccinated,” said Dr Stephan Russek, Chargé d’Affaires at the German Embassy.

The Ministry of Health and Population is planning to distribute the vaccines from December 19-27 in 57 districts, mainly targeting children aged 12-17. Vaccination booths will be set up in all community schools of 57 districts to administer Moderna vaccine to children.

The J&J vaccines would be given to those people going abroad and to other target populations.

The Ministry has also decided to administer COVID-19 vaccine from over 16,000 immunization centers, which are being used for childhood immunization, throughout the country.

Nepal is on the race to vaccinate all its eligible population as vaccines are arriving in huge numbers and additional supply is confirmed.

The Health Ministry said that 9,468,489 people (31.2 percent of the total population) have been fully vaccinated as of Thursday.

Nepal needs to vaccinate around 78 percent of its over 30 million estimated population, or around 25 million people, as per the government’s new plan that includes vaccinating those aged between 12 and 18 years.