The Nepal government’s failure to procure additional vaccines led the health authorities to indefinitely halt the ongoing immunization drive in the country, reported The Kathmandu Post. The existing stock, officials said, would be used to administer the second doses to those who have already received their first. 

“Right now, we do not have a new schedule to administer vaccines to those who have not taken it so far. We need to secure the second dose for those who took the first, and there is no certainty of getting additional doses immediately to extend the second phase.” a health ministry official said. 

The country had started the second phase of vaccination of the people aged over 65 on 7 March, authorities had earlier planned to start vaccinating people over 60 years of age but now the plan has been put on hold.

Currently, the country has a stock of 700,000 vaccines and would be utilized to administer the second doses. It had, so far, received around 2.3 million doses of Covishield, including the one million donated by India.
The government has reportedly failed to re-negotiate another deal with the Serum Institute of India (SII) which had earlier signed a deal for 2 million doses. Reports suggested the SSI has now been charging higher rates than what was agreed upon in the first deal. The supply crunch is believed to be the reason behind the escalated charges. 

Earlier this week, the government had allowed private players to import vaccines independently, and capped the profit by a maximum of 10 percent.