By Ajita Rijal
Kathmandu, Jan. 19: At a time when the entire world is racing for immunisation against COVID-19 with high hopes pinned on the news of invention and development of new vaccines, the government is preparing seriously and looking forward to timely import and availability of the COVID vaccines to its citizens.
On Friday, January 15, the Department of Drug Administration (DDA) under the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) granted emergency use approval to the COVID-19 vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca and manufactured in India. The vaccine is named ‘Covishield’.
The DDA decided to grant emergency use authorisation to the Covishield vaccine manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, after it issued a notice calling on manufacturers of vaccines listed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) or their authorised agents to apply for emergency use authorisation.
“As only one manufacturer company of India has been approved for the emergency authorization, now we are waiting for more manufacturers to apply,” said Dr. Jageshwor Gautam, Spokesperson at the MoHP.
“The more companies apply for authorisation, the more choices we shall have. Also we are holding discussions and approaching the vaccine manufactures which have completed third-phase trial,” added Dr. Gautam.
Soon after the availability of vaccines, the government is set to begin vaccine administration,
said Dr. Gautam, adding, “We have already prepared the vaccine administering modality.”
As per the MoHP, all health workers serving either in government or private health facilities who are at high risk of getting infected will be in first priority for vaccination. In addition, frontline workers including staffs of health institutions, security personnel and female community health volunteers also fall under the first priority list.
The government is planning to vaccinate 3 per cent of the population involved in the health facilities and social sector in the first phase, said Dr. Gautam and added that in second phase 17 per cent population including elderly and high-risk people will be innoculated.
“As there is no sufficient supply of vaccine around the globe, we shall not wait only for the COVAX vaccines,” said Dr. Gautam, adding, “We are adopting all possible ways to get the vaccine at the earliest.”
COVAX plans to purchase and supply as many as two billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines to its participating nations by 2021. As the vaccine manufacturing companies are unable to meet the demand, there is uncertainty in its supply.
With the delay in the COVAX vaccines, the government gave conditional approval to AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine against the coronavirus on Friday, said Dr. Gautam.
Meanwhile, public health expert, Dr. Rabindra Pandey emphasised on the need to make urgent and solid progress in regard to securing the vaccines for citizens.