Nepal: People cheers after approval of Covishield vaccine manufactured in India

After Nepal government approved emergency use of Covishield vaccine, people are hoping the pandemic will falter and human lives would be back on track.

Nepal's Department of Drug Administration on Friday issued a release giving information on approving Covishield developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, which will be manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII) in India.

Drug regulating authority has also specified Serum Institute of India for importers provided with low cost in purchasing and delivery of vaccine to public.

Approving the vaccine for conditional purpose, the department has also asked manufacturers or importers to get approval for registration in order to bring the vaccines.

Nepal imposed nationwide and partial lockdown for most of 2020 with rise in imported cases which later took the form of local transmission spreading mostly in urban areas and major cities.

The nationwide lockdown which started in March 2020 hampered daily life of people as well as businesses.

They now expect to thrive with the approval of vaccine.

Though the detailed inoculation plan of Nepal Government is yet to be disclosed, a total of 3 companies applied for approval to take steps forward with Serum Institute for import of vaccines.

India has already made conditional emergency approval for Covishield manufactured by the Serum Institute.

Being one of the largest producers of vaccines at low cost, India has promised to provide vaccine to its neighbours in near future.