Karnali, Feb 25: National Assembly (NA) Chairperson Ganesh Prasad Timalsina said that people's representatives who took cognizance of every social issue are the psychosocial counsellors.    

At an interaction organized by the Ministry of Health and Population in the technical assistance of WHO in Surkhet today, NA Chair Timalsina viewed that it was the responsibility of people's representatives to identify social problems.    

Lauding the role of the people's representatives towards COVID-19 response, prevention and launching vaccination drive, Timalsina asserted that Nepal would not achieve success in a drive against COVID-19 without the active participation of people's representatives.    

He suggested launching a special campaign for an anti-COVID-19 vaccination drive in Karnali and Madhesh province. "The people's representatives should also create enabling environment for vaccination," the NA Chairperson said.    

Similarly, Karnali Province Chief Minister Jivan Bahadur Shahi clarified that actual statistic on vaccinated people in Karnali Province is yet to be collected given the geographical remoteness of the Province as well as technical issues in data collection and distribution due to adverse weather conditions.    

According to him, 52 per cent of the total population in the Province had received the first dose of vaccine against COVID-19 while 48 per cent received the second jab. A total of 50,093 receive booster doses.    

Likewise, Karnali Province Assembly spokesperson Raj Bahadur Shahi opined that Nepal could achieve success in the COVID-19 prevention and control drive due to cooperation between the health sector and people's representatives.    

Present in the event were WHO representative to Nepal Dr Rajesh Sambhajirao Pandav, Ministry's spokesperson Dr Sangita Kaushal Mishra, health sector's representatives and local people's representatives.    

Experts had presented their paper on a wide range of issues relating to the COVID-19 response efforts of Nepal including the role of parliament in ensuring vaccination coverage against COVID-19, community integration in COVID-19 prevention and control drive, the science behind the health safety protocols against COVID-19 and the government's strategy for vaccination drive among others.