Nepal on Friday approved the use of AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine manufactured in India against the novel coronavirus.
"Conditional permission has been granted for emergency use authorization of Covishield vaccine against Covid-19 in Nepal," a statement by the country's Department of Drug Administration said.
The country has reported 2,66,816 Covid-19 cases and 1,948 deaths since the outbreak of the disease.
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The announcement came on the day of the sixth meeting of the India-Nepal Joint Commission when External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar held a talk with Nepal Foreign Minister Pradeep Kumar Gyawali in Delhi.
"During the meet, Nepal congratulated India on the remarkable success in the production of Covishield and Covaxin vaccines in India and requested for early provision of vaccines to Nepal," said the Ministry of External Affairs.
India's vaccine export plans
According to reports, India plans to offer 20 million doses of coronavirus vaccine to its neighbours. It is drawing up a policy to supply vials to countries across the globe.
An Indian state-run company will reportedly buy vaccines from the Serum Institute of India Ltd. and Bharat Biotech International Ltd. for supplying to Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Seychelles and Mauritius. Some of supplies may be free and treated as aid, a Bloomberg report said.
The first batch of the vials will be shipped over the next two weeks, the report said. The government will then offer the vaccines to countries in Latin America, Africa and the former Soviet republics.
The East Asian country is also supplying its home-grown inoculations around the world. Brazil, with more than eight million cases, has sought urgent supplies and so has South Africa.
However, India on Thursday appeared to contradict reported comments by Brazil’s Deputy Health Minister Elcio Franco who said that his country was sending an aircraft to pick up two million doses of the Covishield vaccine.
“It is too early to give a specific response on the supplies to other countries as we are still assessing production schedules and delivery," India’s foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava said.