By TRN Online, Kathmandu, Feb. 6: China has reiterated its commitment to provide COVID-19 vaccines to Nepal as much as needed by different channels.

Issuing a press release on Saturday, the embassy of People's Republic of China in Nepal, said that the announced grant assistance of 500 thousand corona vaccines to Nepal was just a beginning.

Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali had a telephonic conversation with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Friday, when the latter announced that China would provide Nepal half a million of doses of corona vaccines as grant assistance so as to support Nepal in its fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

"The Chinese Embassy is working closely with the Nepali side for the early delivery of the donated vaccines to Nepal so as to enhance its capacity to fight against the epidemic and make a positive contribution to ensuring the health and safety of its people. China is ready to take this as a beginning to further promote the vaccine cooperation between our two countries, and will provide Nepal more vaccines through different channels to help Nepal win the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic at an early date and build a community of health for China and Nepal" the Chinese embassy said in its press release.

"On February 5, Chinese State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi had a phone conversation with Nepali Foreign Minister Gyawali. Both sides positively evaluated the progress of bilateral relations and exchanged views on issues of common interest.  In particular, Wang Yi announced that China has decided to provide the first patch of 500,000 doses of vaccine aid for Nepal and is willing to facilitate the purchase of vaccines for Nepal," the embassy said.

China and Nepal are traditional friendly neighbors.  We have developed our relations based on respect for each other's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and have always supported and helped each other through thick and thin when the other side encounters difficulties and challenges, setting a good example of friendly relations between countries of different sizes and social systems. Since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic last year, Nepal has donated 100,000 masks to China, and China has donated pandemic prevention materials including nearly 3 million masks, more than 50,000 sets of PPEs, nearly 200,000 testing kits to Nepal, and facilitated the procurement of medical materials in China for Nepal.

Despite high demands for the vaccines both in China and around the world, the Chinese government has made earnest coordination to provide Nepal with the vaccines, which not only is a practical move to fulfill Chinese President Xi Jinping’s solemn commitment to making Chinese vaccine as a global public good when available, but also fully reflects the profound and friendly feeling of the Chinese people to the Nepali people, read the press release.

The vaccine donated is developed by the Sinopharm.  The existing results of Phase III clinical trials on this vaccine reveal that after a two-dose inoculation procedure, the vaccine shows 79.34 percent efficacy against COVID-19 and the seroconversion rate of neutralizing antibodies reached 99.52%.  Its effectiveness and safety has been proved.  The Sinopharm vaccine has been granted licence for marketing or approved for emergency use in 14 countries and regions including China, the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt, Pakistan, and Hungary. On February 4, Cambodia became the latest country to approve the emergency use of the Sinopharm vaccine, said the Chinese embassy.

China attaches great importance to international cooperation on the vaccine. As President Xi Jinping pointed out at the virtual Davos Agenda event held by the World Economic Forum not long ago, containing the coronavirus is the most pressing task for the international community. Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, it is especially important to scale up cooperation on the R&D, production and distribution of vaccines and make them public goods that are truly accessible and affordable to people in all countries, read the press release.

On October 8, 2020, China officially joined the COVAX.  Three days ago, at the request of the WHO, China decided to provide 10 million doses of vaccine to the COVAX, mainly for the urgent needs of the developing countries.  This is another important measure for China to promote the equitable distribution of vaccines and international cooperation in the fight against the pandemic, the Chinese embassy said in the press release.