#2 COVID-19 & VACCINATION

Fifteen months since the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in December 2019 in Wuhan, pharmaceutical companies and suppliers around the world have been in a global race to manufacture vaccines adequate enough to vaccinate people against the virus. Already, some countries have been able to vaccinate sizeable proportions of their population while many others […]

Fifteen months since the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in December 2019 in Wuhan, pharmaceutical companies and suppliers around the world have been in a global race to manufacture vaccines adequate enough to vaccinate people against the virus. Already, some countries have been able to vaccinate sizeable proportions of their population while many others are in the process of doing so. However, for the vast number of countries in the Global South adequate supplies of vaccines have been difficult as of March end. As the key global economies are hoarding vaccines – more than their populations oftentimes – the Global South, most certainly all nations in the much-populated South Asia, are struggling to secure minimum vaccine doses to vaccinate a reasonable share of their populations. Internally, they are also facing additional challenges in equitably distributing whatever little vaccine doses they have managed to secure. To this end, we recommend GoN to strengthen its coordination efforts among the three tiers of governments as well as with relevant health and development agencies (local and global), international vaccine manufacturers and suppliers, the neighbouring countries but also countries that have made special contributions to Nepal’s economy (e.g. destination countries for the Nepali migrant workers and Nepali students, and key trade partners) to help meet the target of vaccinating at least 72 percent of the national population.