KATHMANDU: As many as 1.5 million doses of Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines will arrive in Nepal from the United States of America (USA) today under the COVAX facility.

According to a source at the Ministry of Health and Population, the COVID-19 vaccines will arrive from the USA, Monday.

“One million five hundred thousand doses of Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines will arrive on Monday,” said an official at the Ministry of Health and Population.

The USA has already dispatched 1.5 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson (JNJ.N) COVID-19 vaccine to Nepal and 500,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine to Bhutan on Friday, Reuters news agency reported.

Earlier, President Bidya Bhandari had written a letter to her American counterpart Joe Biden urging the latter to extend help in COVID-19 vaccines.

Experts have said that one dose of Johnson & Johnson will suffice against COVID-19 while two doses of other vaccines are required.

Nepal has received 348,000 doses of Covishield (developed by Oxford AstraZeneca) manufactured by the Serum Institute of India under the COVAX facility.

There have been grievances that the COVAX has not been distributing vaccines despite its commitments to make vaccines available for at least 20 percent of the entire world population.

The Health Ministry is making preparations to administer 1.5 million Johnson & Johnson to the citizens on a priority basis.

Eight hundred thousand doses of Vero Cell arrived in Nepal from China Thursday.

With this, Nepal has received a total of 5,048,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines so far, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.