AP Interview: Official says Nepal desperately needs vaccines

KATHMANDU, Nepal (AP) — Nepal has significantly reduced coronavirus infections after its worst outbreak, which overwhelmed the country’s medical system, but is in desperate need of vaccines, its health minister said Thursday.

“We have gone down from the red stage to the yellow stage, but are not yet able to reach the green zone,” Health Minister Sher Bahadur Tamang said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We are working very hard to get us there.”

Nepal has been under lockdown since April after new cases and deaths spiked following a massive outbreak in neighboring India.

Close to 10,000 new cases and hundreds of deaths were reported daily in mid-May, when the surge was at its worst. There was an acute shortage of hospital beds, medicines and oxygen for patients.

In the capital, Kathmandu, doctors treated patients in hospital corridors, verandahs and parking lots, and ambulances were turned back due to a lack of space. There were long lines at oxygen plants to fill cylinders.

After weeks of lockdown, the situation has improved. The number of new cases on Thursday was 2,607 along with 39 deaths, according to the Health Ministry.

Nepal launched a vaccination campaign in January but was forced to suspend it after India halted exports of domestically produced AstraZeneca vaccines because of its own outbreak. China then donated 800,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine in March and another 1 million earlier this month.

Still, only about 8.5% of the population has received one shot and about 2.5% have been fully immunized.

“The main issue for us is vaccines, and unless we get vaccines we cannot say everyone is safe,” Tamang said. “We have been appealing to all countries manufacturing vaccines to please provide us with some.”

About 1.4 million elderly Nepalese received an...