Govt provides additional Rs 500 million for COVID-19 vaccine

KATHMANDU:  The government has provided additional Rs 500 million to the Ministry of Health and Population for vaccination against Covid-19.

The Ministry of Finance on Tuesday provided an additional Rs 500 million to the Ministry of Health from the funds allocated by the government for the prevention and treatment of Coronavirus.

Earlier, Finance had provided Rs. 500 million to the Ministry of Health for the vaccine.

The ministry has provided Rs 500 million in the first phase and another Rs 500 million in the second phase.

With this, the total amount provided by the government to the Ministry of Health for the vaccine has reached Rs 1 billion.

However, the government of India had provided 1 million doses of vaccine free of cost to Nepal on January 20.

In the first phase, the government has procured 1 million doses of vaccine from India, 6 million doses from the World Health Organization (WHO) in the second phase and 500,000 doses from China.

However, the government is preparing to buy an additional 2 million doses of vaccine with its own investment.