By A Staff Reporter
Kathmandu, Nov. 15: The government has started administering Pfizer, a vaccine against COVID-19, to immune-compromised people above 12 years of age across the country from today. The Pfizer vaccine provided by the United States of America is considered more beneficial for chronically ill people and people suffering from different ailments.

According to the Family Welfare Division of the Department of Health, it is planning to inoculate around 50,000 people suffering from chronic diseases.
The vaccine is being provided to those people suffering from ailments including diabetes, high blood pressure, kidney failure, people with problems in lungs and heart, people undergoing dialysis, people suffering from all kinds of cancer, and people who have transplanted body parts.

The patients must take their disease diagnosis proof provided by their physicians to receive the vaccine. The first dose of the vaccine will be provided from November 14-20. The second dose of the vaccine will be provided from December 14-19. The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) has listed 24 hospitals of all seven provinces to provide the vaccines to the immune compromised people aged above 12 years.

Lalitpur has more than 500 active cases of COVID-19
The Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) Sunday confirmed 306 new cases of COVID-19. Of them, 291 were detected through PCR tests and 15 through antigen tests.
The nationwide COVID-19 tally through PCR method reached 816,966 and that through antigen tests reached 95,087.

Of the total 9,606 tests conducted in the last 24 hours, 8,008 were Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) while 1,598 were antigen tests, informed the MoHP.
According to the MoHP, the Kathmandu Valley recorded 113 new infections over that period. Of these, 76 cases were confirmed in Kathmandu, eight in Bhaktapur and 29 in Lalitpur. In the past 24 hours, 18 new infections were recorded in Province 1; 13 in Province 2; 127 in Bagmati; 29 in Gandaki; 35 in Lumbini; one in Karnali; and six in Sudurpaschim.

According to the MoHP data, only Lalitpur district has more than 500 active cases and 10 other districts have more than 200 active cases each. Meanwhile, Manang, Dolpa and Humla are the districts with zero active case as of today.

The active caseload has reached 7,215 on Sunday. Of the active cases, 516 patients are admitted to various health facilities while remaining 6,699 are in home isolation.
As per the latest update, 222 COVID-19 patients are admitted to the Intensive Care Units (ICUs) while 67 are under treatment with ventilator support throughout the nation.
Meanwhile, 348 COVID-19 patients recovered from the infection during that period. Nepal has now recorded 798,274 cases of recovery.

The country also reported six deaths related to the disease in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 11,477. The recovery rate of COVID-19 has reached 97.7 per cent and death rate is 1.4 per cent, as of today.
The MoHP informed that of the target population, 8,828,428 (44.3 per cent) people had received their first dose of the vaccine against COVID-19 and that 7,553,560 (37.9 per cent) had received their full dose as of Sunday. In total, 15,906 people were vaccinated in the last 24 hours.