KATHMANDU: The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has written to COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer Serum Institute of India, requesting it to provide the remaining 1 million vaccine doses at the earliest.
This is the third time the MoHP is writing to the Indian vaccine manufacturer to provide the vaccine. The non-availability of vaccines has affected the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in the country.
The government had signed an agreement with the Serum Institute on February 17 to purchase 2 million doses of vaccine. The first lot of one million doses of vaccine arrived at Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA) on February 21 and the remaining was to arrive by March 7.
However, Serum Institute had written to the government stating that it could not provide the second lot of the vaccine on time. The government has already paid Rs 930 million to Serum Institute.
Nearly 1.8 million Nepalis have been inoculated with the Serum Institute-manufactured Covisheild vaccine so far.
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