By Our Correspondents
Manang, Mustang, Aug. 5: Vaccines against COVID-19 have been provided to everyone aged above 18 years in Manang, thereby becoming the first fully vaccinated district.
Badri Acharya, chief of Manang Health Office, said that vaccines against the novel coronavirus were provided to all 4,198 people of that age group, leaving virus-infected patients and pregnant women, in the district.
As the district across the mountain was hit hard by the rain-induced disasters this year, the vaccines were sent to Manang via helicopter.
As reported by the District Health Office, 2,096 people had received Covishield, out of which only 165 are yet to get the second jab. Similarly, 75 locals were inoculated with the full dose of Vero Cell and the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine was administered to 2,027 people.
According to Vaccine Coordination Committee, the anti-coronavirus vaccines were administered to 1,437 people of Chame Rural Municipality, 1,070 of Naso Rural Municipality, 1,291 of Manang Knisyang Municipality and 400 of Narpabhumi Rural Municipality.
"We were successful in inoculating everyone in the district amid the threat of COVID-19 and rain-induced disasters," said Chief District Officer and coordinator of Vaccine Coordination Committee Bishnu Lamichhane.
According to Lamichhane, all the locals, employees of all government
and private offices, businesspersons and labours have been inoculated under the COVID-19 vaccination campaign launched in Manang.
The vaccination drive had kicked off in Manang on January 27 from 28 vaccination centres set up in 28 wards.
The centre had provided 4,660 doses of Covishield, 178 doses of Vero Cell and 2,505 doses of J&J vaccine. A total of 680 doses of leftover vaccines were sent to Lamjung.
Similarly, Mustang has become the second district to administer COVID-19 vaccines to everyone aged above 18 years.
According to Tikaram Bhandari, Chief of Mustang Health Office, a total of 9,508 people have received the second dose of the anti-coronavirus vaccine in the district.
"All the locals have received the jab. If anyone has not been vaccinated yet, they can contact us," said Bhandari, adding no one aged above 18 years was left to receive the vaccine. He said that the district also had surplus vaccines.
Bhandari further said that the vaccination drive was conducted in Mustang as per the decision made by the meeting of the District Immunisation Inspection and Coordination Committee and not a single dose was misused.
Now, only 242 locals of Mustang are left to be inoculated with the second dose of the Vero Cell vaccine.
Currently, there are 20 active cases of COVID-19 in Mustang, of which only one is under treatment in institutional isolation and the remaining patients are in home isolation.
As of Wednesday, Mustang has recorded 518 cases of COVID-19 and 15 fatalities.