NEW DELHI (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th July, 2021) The United States has donated enough J&J vaccines to fully immunize 1.5 million people in Nepal, becoming the largest single-country donor of COVID-19 assistance to the country, Ambassador to Kathmandu Randy Berry announced on Monday.
"A delivery has just arrived in Kathmandu, bringing 1,534,850 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to Nepal from the United States through COVAX. This is a gift, at no cost, from the American people. we wont's trade shots in arms for political favors. This is about saving lives," Berry wrote on Twitter.
A single dose of J&J vaccine is enough to fully immunize a person against COVID-19, which means that the current batch will be sufficient to "protect" over 1.5 million people in Nepal, or some 5% of the whole population, the diplomat noted.
The US, the ambassador further stressed, has been one of Nepal's closest partners for nearly 70 years, and this partnership has expanded during the pandemic. Currently, the US is the "largest single-country donor of ongoing assistance to Nepal's COVID-19 response," he added.
Nepal has been reporting an average of 1,500 new cases a day over the past few weeks, with a number of COVID-19 infections exceeding 655,000 since the start of the pandemic.
