The Ministry of Health and Population kept China’s agreement to buy the Verosel vaccine a secret.

Kathmandu : The government, which has been widely criticized for failing to provide vaccines against the corona virus, has finally decided to buy the vaccine from China. The government, which has been hoping for vaccines from India for a long time, has agreed to buy the vaccines for the last time by signing an agreement with China. The government was not interested when China said it was ready to supply vaccine eight months ago.

The government had high hopes for vaccines from India, the United States and some European countries. However, the decision to buy the vaccine from China was taken under the direct direction of Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, said a health ministry official.

 The Government procured Chinese Verosell vaccine will be brought from next Thursday. It has been decided to send a ship to China to bring 3 million doses of vaccine in three flights of Nepal Airlines Corporation from July 9 to July 23. Dim Prasad Poudel, director general of the corporation, said that one million vaccines were being brought in one flight.

The government and China’s Beijing-based Sinopharm Company had a secret agreement to buy the vaccine. The government has not made public the amount of money spent on vaccines. Aa inner source in the Ministry of Health said that the vaccine was purchased on the condition that the agreement would not be made public for four years. Sources claim that one quantity was bought for 14 dollars.

The cabinet meeting held on June 14 had agreed to the Ministry of Health to move ahead with the procurement of corona vaccine. When Nepal offered to buy the vaccine, the Chinese company had stated that it should enter into a ‘non-disclosure agreement’ without disclosing the price and number of vaccines purchased. Due to this condition, the Department of Health Services and the Ministry were not able to proceed with the procurement process.

The government has agreed to a secret agreement as per the proposal of the Chinese company as the vaccine could not come from other countries.

Although the government has sent an advance payment for the purchase of 2 million doses of covisilde vaccine produced by the Serum Institute of India, 1 million doses have not yet arrived. 18 lakh 28 thousand 4 hundred 84 people who have applied the first dose are waiting for the second dose. Similarly, there has been talk of bringing vaccines with other countries as well, but no results have come out.

The Ministry of Health and Population kept China’s agreement to buy the Verosel vaccine a secret. After the Prime Minister informed the meeting that the vaccines would be delivered within three days, the ministry hastily issued a statement on Friday evening announcing that the vaccines purchased in China would be brought.

The Prime Minister had informed at the meeting of the Board of Directors of COVID-19 on June 16 that homework was being done to bring 4 million vaccines from China and it would be started from July, but the airline corporation said that it was sending ships to bring 3 million vaccines three times.

Director General Poudel said that the ship will bring one million doses of vaccine on Friday. In the second phase, 1 million doses will be brought by sending the ship on July 15. In the third phase, the ship going on July 16 will bring another 1 million doses of vaccine tomorrow.

A total of 4.29 million vaccines have been received, including 2.9 million in grants from China and India, 3,48,000 from the Covax facility and 1 million from the government of India. Out of this, 264,866 people have applied the first dose and 757,635 people have applied the second dose. In the first dose, 1,828,484 people have been vaccinated with Covisilde and 776,328 people have been vaccinated with Verosel In the second dose, 459,625 people have been vaccinated with Covishield and 298,010 people have been vaccinated with Verosel. The second dose of the vaccine provided by China for the second time has been made public from July 6.