By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Oct. 4: State Minister for Health and Population Umesh Shrestha has said that the government will vaccinate children aged below 18 years against COVID-19 immediately after the Dashain festival.
Speaking at a programme organised to hand over health materials to Kanti Children's Hospital by the Buddhist Tzu Chi Charity Foundation on Sunday, State Minister Shrestha said that the delivery of 10 million doses of vaccines for the children aged below 18 has already been ensured. 

State Minister Shrestha said that the government has already concluded the purchase of four million doses of Moderna vaccines and six million doses of Pfizer vaccines for children.
Of them, 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines will arrive in Nepal by Dashain and will be provided to children, he said.

On the occasion, State Minister Shrestha said that provisions have been made to provide scholarships to the children of frontline health workers, who died while working for prevention and control of COVID-19 inside the country. The Foundation donated 25 ventilators along with other health materials to Kanti Children's Hospital. According to Mahesh Nakarmi, representative of the Foundation, the Foundation has arranged 200 ventilators and 25 of them were provided to Kanti Hospital, in view of the risk of a third wave of COVID-19 infection.

Remaining ventilators will be provided to other hospitals across the nation, which are providing treatment to children, said Nakarmi.