COVID-19: India says meeting Nepal’s vaccine requirement would be priority

India on Friday assured the people of Nepal that once it rolls out a vaccine against COVID-19, meeting their requirement will be a priority for New Delhi, amid a spike of the deadly disease in the Himalayan nation.

Foreign Secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla, addressing a lecture hosted by the Asian Institute of Diplomacy and International Affairs (AIDIA), a Kathmandu-based non-partisan foreign policy think-tank, said that India is “on the cusp of the availability of a vaccine for the novel coronavirus”.

“As the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines, India is at the forefront of this effort. We have at least five promising vaccine candidates at advanced stages of trials.

“I would like to assure the people of Nepal that once a vaccine is rolled out, meeting Nepal’s requirement would be a priority for us,” Shringla said.

He said that the year 2020 has brought with it the additional challenge in the form of COVID-19 pandemic and this has been the most globally disruptive event since the second world war.

Its devastating impact on society and the economy is still being calculated.

“Through this period, Nepal and India have been together, we have suffered together and we have fought back together,” he added.

Globally, 60,559,702 people are infected with the disease and 1,424,470 people have died of the deadly virus.

Nepal has over 226,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and nearly 1,400 people have died of the disease in the country. 

(Image: PTI)