Half of Nepal’s population fully vaccinated against Covid-19

Kathmandu, Feb 3 (EFE).- More than 50 percent of Nepal’s population is now fully vaccinated against Covid-19, the Health Ministry said Thursday.

Nepal launched the Covid-19 vaccination campaign on Jan.27, 2021.

“As of Thursday, Nepal has inoculated 14.9 million people with both doses,” Health Ministry spokesperson Sangita Mishra told EFE.

“This is the collective success of all stakeholders, including the central, provincial, and local level governments, health workers, aid agencies, and countries which have provided us the vaccine doses,” said Mishra.

The daily vaccine coverage report by the ministry shows that with 266,540 people vaccinated in the last 24 hours, the number of fully vaccinated or people having both doses has reached 51.1 percent.

According to the preliminary census report of the Central Bureau of Statistics, Nepal’s total population stands at 29.19 million.

The Health Ministry said 17.3 million people had received at least the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine until Thursday. The figure represents 68.4 percent of the total population.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has said Nepal was on track for meeting global vaccination targets.

In May 2021, WHO Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, set three global targets: 10 percent vaccinate of the population of every country by September, 40 percent by the end of 2021, and 70 percent by mid-2022.

Nepal plans to vaccinate all eligible populations by mid-April 2022.

The coronavirus has killed 11,778 people in Nepal, the majority in 2021. EFE

sp/ssk