The government’s campaign to administer Pfizer vaccines scheduled to begin from today has been postponed for now until further notice due to shortage of syringes.

Sagar Dahal, head of the vaccination branch at the Department of Health Services, said that the vaccination campaign was postponed for some time due to non-availability of syringes. “We received the vaccines as a grant, but we did not get syringes,” he said.

He said that the syringes were not available only for Pfizer vaccine and urged everyone to get other vaccines without a worry. According to him, a 0.33 mm syringe is required for the Pfizer vaccine.

“Besides the syringes, Pfizer vaccines also need diluent and we don’t that that either. Both syringes and diluent are scheduled to arrive on Wednesday and we will resume the vaccination drive accordingly.”
The government had scheduled administration of Pfizer vaccines in eight districts from December 28 to January 6.

On December 24, the United States had donated an additional 664,000 Pfizer vaccines through the COVAX facility to Nepal. The government had planned to administer the vaccines to children between the ages of 12 and 17.