Kathmandu, July 8- An aircraft of the Nepal Airlines Corporation (NAC) is flying to China today to bring COVID-19 vaccines namely, Vero Cell purchased by Nepal from the Chinese Government. The aircraft (wide-body A330) will take off to China three times until July 23 to ship all quantities of the vaccines procured from China through government-to-government (G2G) channels, said Dr Krishna Prasad Poudel, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population.

The first shipment will arrive on July 9. Likewise, the aircraft will fly on July 15 for second lot and arrive on July 16. Again, it will take off on July 22 and bring the third shipment on July 23. “The consignment is large. However, its exact amount is not known,” he said. The vaccines were manufactured by Sinopharm Company in China.

People aged below 60 would be prioritised for the inoculations, he said. So far, the country has received 4,248,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines. It aims to vaccinate 22 million people above 18 against the infection. So far, 851,300 people have received the second dose and 2,611,807 people the first dose. (RSS)