Kathmandu, Dec. 10: The Government is going to administer the Moderna vaccine to children between 12 and 18 years from December 19 in 57 districts across the country.

Sagar Dahal, chief of the National Immunisation Programme, Moderna vaccines will be administered to around 1.8 million children. The vaccination will run from schools.

Dahal said, “The responsibility of setting up vaccination centres in schools has been given to the local level. The local level will determine the vaccination centre by adhering to the health safety standard.”

Dahal said that the criteria for setting up the vaccination centres have been fixed for schools with more than 100 students in Himalayan districts and schools with more than 200 students in other districts. Nepal will receive a total of 3,651,600 doses of Moderna vaccine till December 12 and this vaccine will be given at 57 districts of the country to children aged 12-18.

According to Bharat Bhandari, Immunisation Officer at Child Health and Immunisation Section, the other 20 districts have already administered the first dose of Pfizer vaccine.

The 20 districts that administer the first dose of Pfizer vaccine on November, 15 – November, 22 were Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Saptari, Dhanusha, Parsa, Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Lalitpur, Kavre, Sindhuli, Chitwan, Baglung, Kaski, Rupandehi, Banke, Dang, Surkhet, Kailali, and Dadeldhura.

Of the total of 100,620 doses of Pfizer vaccine procured in Nepal on October, 25, around 50,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine were administered for a week from November, 15 to chronically people above 12 years.  Dahal said that the remaining 50,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine will be used in the campaign while informing that 6 lakh more doses of Pfizer vaccine will arrive shortly.