Nepal has largely been dependent on its neighbours India and China for its supply of COVID-19 vaccines both purchased and received as donations as the two countries’ attempt to use vaccine diplomacy to strengthen their influence on the small Himalayan nation. Nepal also purchased 348,000 from the World Health Organization-backed Covax scheme which arrived in March 2021.
While the Nepal government was sourcing its vaccines from India financed through its health budget after the latter’s initial donation of 1 million doses in January of this year, the slowing of vaccine imports by India halted the vaccine drive for a while.
In the last week of March, Beijing decided to dispatch 800,000 doses of China’s Sinopharm vaccine to Nepal as a priory and the country is now set to resume its vaccination drive. This is an example, how developing nations are resorting to multiple ways of vaccine procurement- direct purchase, COVAX, donations, and domestic production if they have the needed capacity and infrastructure.
Read the original news report here.
Image credits: CNBC
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