Kathmandu: A day after the Nepal Army received 100,000 doses of Covid vaccine from their Indian counterparts as a goodwill gesture, 800,000 doses donated by China arrived in Kathmandu on Monday.
Chinese Ambassador to Nepal, Hou Yanqi, looked elated as she handed over China’s fresh gift to Nepal: 800,000 doses of Sinopharm-developed Covid vaccine. That may pave the way for more Sinopharm vaccine to Nepal, which is in dire need of Covid vaccine to inoculate its vulnerable population.
As soon as the Nepal Airlines jet plane arrived from Beijing carrying the precious doses of Covid vaccine on Tuesday morning, Ambassador Hou Yanqi reached Kathmandu airport to receive them. Smiling, she later handed over the vaccine to Nepal’s Health Minister Hridayesh Tripathi and pledged continued support from China.
As Nepal prepares to begin the second phase of vaccination, New Delhi and Beijing are clearly stepping up their vaccine diplomacy in the Himalayan nation of about 30 million people, where the KP Oli government has already floated plans to ensure Covid jabs to every citizen above age 18 within a year.
Earlier this week, Nepal got 1,00,000 doses of covid vaccine from India as part of the Nepal-India army cooperation package. But long before the Chinese vaccines arrived, it was India that initiated vaccine diplomacy in Nepal with one million doses of Covishield vaccine as a gift that arrived in Kathmandu in January.
Later, Nepal received more Covid jabs under COVAX, an international initiative co-led by the World Health Organization, and ordered two million more doses of Covishield vaccine from Serum Institute of India, with which Nepal’s Health Ministry is said to have long-standing relations.
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Ahead of its second phase of vaccination, Nepal is awaiting more deliveries from the Serum Institute of India, which appears hard-pressed to ensure deliveries to many countries around the world. As of now, Nepal has vaccinated 1.7 million people, and it wants to give Covid jabs to 20 million of its 30 million people within a year.
But even as Nepal looks to Beijing for more Covid vaccines, it’s unclear how many doses Nepal can get as a gift and how many it will need to buy as the Chinese vaccine is costlier than India-made Covishield.
Professor Dr Jageshwor Gautam, the spokesperson at Nepal’s Ministry of Health and Population, says the government is doing its best to get Covid vaccine, “We are holding negotiations with different agencies and governments to get enough Covid-19 vaccine for our people.”
According to Gautam, Nepal is also holding talks with the Asian Development Bank to get 150 million US Dollars of financial aid to procure the Covid vaccine. Just recently, the World Bank approved a credit of 75 million US Dollars for Nepal to strengthen its health system and fight Covid.
But soon after the Chinese vaccine arrived Nepali netizens appeared excited with one Kathmandu journalist writing on Twitter, “Glad to know that Chinese vaccine, too, has arrived from Beijing. Now we will get Indian Covid shot in one arm and Chinese in another arm.”
Jokes apart, one thing is clear: In the days to come, Nepal is likely to continue to look to Delhi and Beijing for more Covid jabs.
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