Nepal to use AstraZeneca vaccine as a common booster

The Ministry of Health and Population has decided to use Covishield or any other vaccine developed under AstraZeneca vaccine trademark as the booster shot even if the people have been inoculated with other COVID-19 vaccines like Moderna, Pfizer, or Vero Cell - in the past.

The common booster will be given to all elderly above 60-years-old and with compromised immunity or with cardinal illness. 

Moreover, the ministry has also decided to provide mixed doses of vaccines produced under different brands by different countries. Like people who received the first dose of Vero Cell, Moderna or Pfizer vaccine can now get a second dose of Covishield or AstraZeneca vaccine.

In the case of those people who received the first dose of AstraZeneca, Moderna, Pfizer, or Vero Cell vaccines in foreign countries will also receive Covishield/AstraZeneca vaccines.

The Family Welfare Bureau of the ministry has also written to all district health offices regarding the new policy. The letter states that the decision about booster shots was made as per per recent decisions of WHO SAGE, National Immunisation Advisory Committee, and Health Minister Birodh Khatiwada. 

The MoHP said that from now on Covishield vaccines should be used as both primary series and booster doses unless the ministry changed its decision. It said that the ministry’s decision to use heterologous vaccines after the World Health Organisation approved it.

The National Immunisation Advisory Committee had earlier decided to go for homologous vaccines however the WHO had approved heterologous vaccines. 

Almost 40 per cent of population (above 12) will receive two doses of vaccine by mid-Februray in Nepal as per the ministry.