By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, July 4: The secretary general of International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC), Jagan Chapagain, has stressed that all classes and sectors of the society should have access to vaccine against the coronavirus.
Chapagain said the pandemic would persist if certain sections of population continued to remain unvaccinated. “We encourage the nations to adopt all possible measures to produce, distribute and increase equitable access of vaccine against COVID-19.”
Chapagain said, "International Red Cross’s focus during the initial days of the COVID-19 infection was on preventing the endangered community from it and on its treatment and life-saving efforts. We are working to ensure everyone’s access to vaccine after its successful testing.”
The activities carried out by him in the humanitarian sector over a period of his 18-month tenure have been widely admired in IFRC member countries.
IFRC had been continuously advocating for providing vaccine to developing and poor countries under the COVAX mechanism.
General Secretary Chapagain said that the cooperation for saving lives and extending accessibility to adequate health services and vaccines would continue in Nepal and other countries struggling against the pandemic.
Nepal Red Cross Society said that IFRC had provided medical equipment, PPEs, face masks and sanitizers to health facilities and hospitals, health care staff as well as training for capacity enhancement of health workers during the initial phase of the pandemic. Besides, it had provided oxygen concentrator, oximeter, thermal gun and body bags for managing the bodies of those who died because of the pandemic.