Booster shots to frontline workers from Sunday

Amid rising COVID-19 cases, Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population has decided to administer booster shots to all frontline workers starting from Sunday in the Himalayan nation, local media reported.

According to The Kathmandu Post, frontline workers include doctors, nurses, paramedics, lab technicians, hospital staff and ambulance drivers.

Booster shots, according to the government, will also be given to journalists, bureaucrats, lawmakers, those serving in diplomatic missions, financial institutions, prisoners, elderly people at old age homes and refugees who were vaccinated in the first phase of the immunization campaign starting January 27.

"All those who were inoculated in the first phase of the vaccination drive come under frontline workers," The Kathmandu Post quoted Dr Samir Kumar Adhkari, joint spokesperson for the Health Ministry, as saying.

"They can receive booster shots from any convenient vaccination center starting tomorrow," Adhkari added.

The ministry has also decided to administer booster doses to all people above 60 years, who were inoculated six months ago, and to those having compromised immunity from January 28, said the newspaper.

The ministry also said that the original vaccine will be provided as booster shots.

Amid the rise in coronavirus cases, calls from several quarters had been growing for launching booster shots. However, the government had said it would start boosters once 40 percent of the total population was jabbed.

Despite having enough vaccines in stock, the vaccination campaign has remained woefully slow, The Kathmandu Post reported.

As of Friday, 11,869,974 people, or 39.1 percent of over 30 million population, were fully vaccinated in Nepal. Coronavirus cases have been rising lately with Nepal on Friday reporting 5,087 new infections.