Japan will send 510,000 doses of the 1.6 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine it pledged to provide to Nepal through the vaccine sharing scheme COVAX on Thursday.
Japan will ship 510,000 doses of the vaccine on Thursday and 330,000 more on Friday, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported.
This will come as a huge relief to the older Nepali adults who are awaiting second dose of Covishield for a long time as the country looks threatened to be swamped by the third wave. The government can start administering the second dose to the older adults the next week with 840,000 doses set to arrive before the end of this week.
The Japanese Embassy issuing a statement on July 13 had said the does will be shipped to Nepal from between mid-July to August end adding that the exact shipping schedule will be confirmed once the procurement arrangement will be finalized by the international organization which is in charge of the matter.
Around 1.30 million Nepalis older than 65 years have not been able to receive second dose of Covishield (AstraZeneca made in India) after receiving the first dose in March following India's ban on export of vaccines to other countries.
