China will provide one million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Nepal on grant.
"During today's phone conversation with Nepali President Bidya Devi Bhandari, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced that China will provide 1 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines to Nepal under grant assistance," Chinese Ambassador to Nepal Hou Yanqi tweeted Wednesday after President Bhandari's telephone conversation with Xi.
Information and Communication Expert to the president, Tika Dhakal, said President Bhandari talked with Xi for almost 45 minutes. She told him that Nepal is ready to procure vaccines necessary to jab all the Nepalis from China and requested him to take initiative for that.
China earlier donated 800,000 doses of the vaccine to Nepal that have been used to inoculate people in the Kathmandu Valley aged below 60 years.
President Bhandari earlier wrote to the Indian head of state through the diplomatic channel urging him to take initiative to provide vaccines to Nepal. She thanked India and the Indian people in the letter to Kovind for providing vaccines earlier on grant and asked Kovind to take initiative to provide one million doses of Covishield that Nepal has already paid for in March.
India first provided one million doses of Covishield to Nepal on grant and then Nepal signed a deal to procure two million doses of the vaccine from India. But just one million doses of that have been delivered until now with the Indian manufacturer expressing inability to deliver the vaccines due to the raging pandemic in India.
Old adults above 65 years, who were given the first dose of Covishield in March, have not been given the second dose due to lack of vaccines.
