By Mahima Devkota, Kathmandu, Aug 9: The government has started a two day's vaccination campaign by administering the second dose of the Covishield vaccine to people above the age of 65 today.

Earlier, the elderlies inoculated with Covishield vaccine from 7-23 March, produced by the Serum Institute of India will receive their booster on August 9 and 10. The vaccination campaign was abruptly halted as India failed to import the purchased vaccines, which delayed the second dose of 1.4 million elderlies.

According to Dr Jhalak Sharma Gautam, chief of the National Immunisation Programme, the vaccination campaign will be conducted with around 1.8 million doses of the vaccines provided by the Bhutanese and the Japanese government under the COVAX facility.

“The two-day-long inoculation campaign aims to inoculate 1.4 million elderlies who had received their first dose of Covishield,” said Dr Gautam.

After inoculating 1.4 million elderlies, the remaining vaccines have made it a priority to give AstraZeneca vaccines to patients with kidney failure, dialysis, organ transplants, and cancer patient, and people travelling abroad informed Dr Gautam to the TRN Online.

A total of 144 vaccination centres have been allocated in the Kathmandu district for this purpose.

According to Health Office, Kathamndu, a total of 17 vaccination centres are allocated in Kathmandu Metropolitan City, similarly, 10 vaccination centres have been identified in Kirtipur Municipality, 15 in Chandragiri Municipality, 10 in Nagarjuna Municipality, 11 in Tarkeshwor Municipality, 9 in Dakshinkali municipality, 13 in Budhanilkantha Municipality, 11 in Tokha Municipality, 9 in Gokarneshwor Municipality and 9 in Kageshwori Manohara Municipality.

Vaccinations are also given at Radhaswami Isolation Center, Balaju, Armed Police Force Hospital, Balambu, Bir Hospital, T.U. Teaching Hospital, Civil Service Hospital, and Paropakar Maternity and Women's Hospital, Thapathali, Kathmandu.

According to the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), 191,339 people were vaccinated in the past 24 hours. The total number of people who have been vaccinated in Nepal with the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to date has reached 4,442,622. Of these, 2,359,793 have received the second dose as well.