KATHMANDU: The first batch of COVID-19 vaccine provided by India has arrived in Kathmandu on Thursday.

An aircraft of Air India carrying COVID-19 vaccines landed at the Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA), the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu said.

Earlier today, Anurag Srivastava, official spokesperson for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs had tweeted that the first consignment of India-made COVID-19 vaccines has taken off for Nepal.

The Government of India had on Wednesday announced to provide 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Nepal under grant assistance.

The vaccines will be inoculated to the frontline health workers, employees and security personnel in the first phase.

It should be noted that Nepal had given a conditional approval to use Serum India Institute’s AstraZeneca Covishield against the COVID-19 last week.

WHILE VACCINE LANDS IN KATHMANDU!!! #VaccineMaitri #NeighbourhoodFirst #IndiaNepalFriendship @MEAIndia @PMOIndia pic.twitter.com/XMaVGuVHzo

— IndiaInNepal (@IndiaInNepal) January 21, 2021