Govt to rejuvenate vaccination campaign

Kathmandu, May 24:   As the vaccination campaign against COVID-19 slows, the Family Welfare Division (FWD), under the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), through all the seven health directorates and 77 district health offices, has asked all the local levels to reinvigorate the campaign for booster shots. 

All the local governments across the nation are requested to conduct the COVID booster campaign by  May 28, according to Basanta Kumar Shrestha, public health officer at the FWD. 

The government has made arrangements for sufficient doses of the vaccine for the campaign, said Shrestha. 

The MoHP had halted the rollout of the vaccine prior to the May 13 local level election. 

“We have supplied sufficient doses of the vaccine to the districts and the provinces needed for the booster campaign,” said Dr. Surendra Chaurasia, chief of the Logistics Management Section at the Department of Health Services.

The local levels should start the booster campaign at the earliest as the vaccines need to be administered within a certain time frame, said Dr. Chaurasia. 

According to him, the vaccine such as Pfizer, which is being stored at minus 80 degrees Celsius can be kept in normal temperature (2 to 8 degrees Celsius) for up to 31 days and if not used within that period, the vaccine would be wasted. 

The government has a total of 9.4 million doses of vaccine against COVID-19 in stock. Of them, 1.8 million are Covishield, 4.3 million Verocell and Sinovac, 1.4 million Pfizer and 1.4 million Moderna. 

The importance and urgency of the vaccine was seen during the second wave. But with decline in the number of coronavirus cases across the country, that no longer seems to be case. 

However, health experts have been urging all to receive the booster shot, saying that doing so would help mitigate the risk of catching any variant of the coronavirus or succumbing to it.  

The FWD had decided to administer vaccine to those who were not vaccinated with single shots in earlier phases of the vaccination campaigns and booster shots to all who were administered with the second dose three months ago.

The FWD has asked all the health directorates and district health offices to launch the booster campaign for three to five days, manage necessary vaccination centres and inform local people through local FM radio about the campaign. 

If your second dose was over three months ago, you should get your booster dose as soon as possible, said Dr. Sangita Kaushal Mishra, spokesperson for the MoHP. No one is safe until everyone is safe from the COVID-19, so all needs to get the shots, she added. 

According to Dr. Samir Kumar Adhikari, deputy spokesperson at the MoHP, 31,388 people were vaccinated against COVID-19 in the last 24 hours.

So far, 22,354,377 people or 76.6 per cent of the total population have been vaccinated against COVID-19. According to the data of the MoHP, 3,814,511 people have taken COVID-19 booster shots as of Monday.

So far the country has received 53,381,570 doses of various vaccines including AstraZeneca, Vero Cell, Moderna, Janssen, Sinovac and Pfizer.

According to Dr. Chaurasiya, 8.4 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been secured for children aged five to 11 years and they are expected to arrive in Kathmandu by June. The Global Alliance for Vaccine and Immunisation (GAVI) has agreed to supply the vaccine free of cost.