By Aasha Sah, Kathmandu, May. 12: The government's COVID-19 vaccination drive, which had been halted due to the second wave of the pandemic followed by prohibitory orders in various parts of the nation, is being resumed.

Dr. Jhalak Sharma Gautam, chief of the national immunisation programme, said, "The vaccination of the second dose of Vero Cell, provided by China, will begin from May 16. Also, we will start administering the second dose of Covishield soon."

Stating that of the total people vaccinated until now, only 500,000 had received the second dose, Dr. Gautam informed that the remaining stock of Covishield would be sent to all 77 on a priority basis for the second round of vaccination.

The government had introduced the vaccination drive with Covishield vaccine, which was received under grant assistance from India, in all seven provinces from January 28. The frontline health workers had received the jab in the nation's first-ever vaccination campaign against COVID-19.

As the inoculation centres were being overcrowded whilst the virus was spreading rampantly, the government had postponed the vaccination campaign on April 28.

The campaign is now resuming from May 16 where the second dose would be administered to 288,000 people who have already received the first jab of Vero Cell.

The government had begun administering Vero Cell from April in seven districts including Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Sindhupalchowk and Kavrepalanchowk.  

China had provided 800,000 doses of Vero Cell, which recently received approval from the World Health Organisation (WHO) for emergency use, under grant assistance.

Dr. Gautam said that preparations were made to increase the number of vaccination centres and employ local representatives and volunteers to avoid crowding during the vaccination campaign.