Kathmandu: The vaccine against coronavirus has been sent by the federal government for Province 1 has reached Biratnagar.



According to the Province Health Supply Management Center, Biratnagar, there is a program to vaccinate 35,576 people in the first phase in province 1. The vaccination will begin from Wednesday.



The province government is preparing to vaccinate health workers and cleaners working in private and government institutions in the first phase.



In the first phase, 12,156 people will be vaccinated in Morang, 5,420 in Sunsari, 5,177 in Jhapa, 858 in Dhankuta, 1,276 in Udayapur and 1,235 in Bhojpur.



There are 1,724 frontliners in Ilam, 1,371 in Okhaldhunga, 1,618 in Khotang, 792 in Tehrathum, 961 in Sankhuwasabha and 792 in Solukhumbu.



Vaccines will also be sent from Biratnagar for Saptari and Siraha of Province 2. 3,930 people will be vaccinated in Siraha and 3,754 in Saptari. Parajuli said that the office would vaccinate 43,260 people in two districts of the state.



The province government has already provided training to the employees for vaccination.

35,000 units of covid-19 vaccines sent to Province 1

(New York Post): A California resident who was vaccinated against COVID-19 died just hours later — and authorities are trying to find out why.



The Placer County Sheriff’s Office announced the death and the investigation Saturday in a Facebook post, but gave few details.



The county, which is in the greater Sacramento area, was “recently notified” of the person’s death, the police said.



The person had tested positive for coronavirus in December and had been vaccinated just hours before their Jan. 21 death.



There was no indication which vaccine the person had been given.



“There are multiple local, state, and federal agencies actively investigating this case; any reports surrounding the cause of death are premature, pending the outcome of the investigation. Our thoughts are with the family of the deceased,” the sheriff’s office wrote.



An autopsy would be done Monday, the sheriff’s office told CBS’ Sacramento affiliate.

Californian dies hours after getting COVID-19 vaccine, prompting probe

Kathmandu: Corona infection has been confirmed in 232 people in Nepal in the last 24 hours.



According to the Ministry of Health and Population, PCR tests of 3,541 people confirmed corona infection in 232 people.



Along with this, the number of corona infections in Nepal has reached 269,180. According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 386 people have been cured in the last 24 hours and the number of people recovering from corona infection in Nepal has reached 263,734. The death toll has risen to 1,994 with the death of eight more Corona infected people.



At present, 3452 people are actively infected in Nepal. At present, 147 infected people are being treated in ICU and 26 in ventilators across the country, according to the ministry.

Corona infection confirmed in 232

Kathmandu (Rashtriya Samachar Samiti): The vaccine against covid-19 infection 'covishield' has been sent to all seven provinces. Jageshwar Gautam, spokesperson for the Ministry of Health and Population, said that the vaccine provided by India has been sent to all the seven provinces.



After being brought from India, the vaccine is kept at the Department of Health Services in Teku. According to him, the vaccines have been distributed to the district hospitals from the provinces on the basis of need and the vaccines will reach all the provinces by Sunday.



The first phase of vaccination will be done by making the hospital the vaccination center. Vaccination will be done from around 300 hospitals in seven provinces. Vaccines will be distributed in more than 10 hospitals in Kathmandu Valley.



Vaccination will be given to the front line health workers, support staff, ambulance and hearse drivers working in the management of COVID-19, security personnel working in the management of corpses killed by infection of COVID-19, waste management and sanitation workers working at the local level.



Ministry spokesman Dr Gautam said the second dose would be given a month or four weeks after the first vaccination. The ministry is preparing to complete the vaccination within a week of the start of vaccination.



The Government of India has provided one million vaccine grants to Nepal on January 22. The covshield vaccine, which can be kept at minus two degrees Celsius to minus eight degrees Celsius, is 70 percent effective in India.

Corona vaccine will reach all provinces by Sunday

Kathmandu: The Government of India gifted one million doses of ‘Made in India’ COVID19 vaccines to Nepal today for the immediate requirement of Nepal’s healthcare and front-line workers. 



Ambassador Vinay Mohan Kwatra and Hridayesh Tripathi, Minister for Health and Population of Government of Nepal received the vaccines on arrival at the airport today forenoon. Ambassador Kwatra expressed the hope that the arrival of the vaccines would mark the beginning of the end of COVID19 and reiterated India's steadfast commitment to the people of Nepal in their efforts to defeating the virus. Health Minister said the timely gift of Indian vaccines to Nepal was akin to a parallel roll-out in both countries.



In the afternoon, at a ceremony at the Prime Minister’s residence, Ambassador Vinay Kwatra formally handed over the gift of 1 million vaccine doses to Prime Minister K. P. Sharma Oli. Ambassador Vinay Kwatra said the vaccines were a gift from the people of India to the people of Nepal and conveyed best wishes for Nepal’s vaccination drive. 



Ahead of today’s supply, India had extended human resource training to Nepal for vaccine roll out at the ground level covering, inter alia, administrative and operational aspects of immunization, cold chain, and communication and data management.

Covid-19 vaccines gifted by India arrives

(CNN): To date, 60 countries across all six World Health Organization regions have reported either imported cases or community transmission of the UK coronavirus strain -- 10 more than a week ago, WHO said in a news release Wednesday.



Among the countries which have reported cases of the variant first identified in the United Kingdom are the United States, Russia, Brazil, India and Spain.



US cases: On Monday, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that at least 122 cases of a the UK variant have been identified in 20 US states.



This includes at least 46 cases in Florida; 40 in California; six in Colorado; five in Minnesota; four each in Indiana and New York; two each in Connecticut, Maryland, and Texas; and one each in Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.



CDC said this does not represent the total number of cases circulating in the US, but rather those that have been found by analyzing positive samples. The agency cautions that its numbers may not immediately match those of state and local health departments.



While the variant, known as B.1.1.7, appears to spread more easily, there's no evidence that it's any more deadly or causes more severe disease, according to CDC.

UK Covid-19 strain detected in at least 60 countries, WHO says

FRANKFURT/OSLO (Reuters): Norway said on Monday it was not changing its policy on the use of Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine following reports of deaths in highly frail recipients after the inoculation was given.



BioNTech had earlier say that “Norwegian Health Authorities have now changed (their) recommendation in relation to vaccination of the terminally ill”. But the company later retracted the statement following clarification from Norway.



The Nordic country is currently vaccinating residents of care homes, including those with serious underlying diseases.



As of Jan. 14, 23 reports of suspected deaths associated with COVID-19 vaccines have been submitted to the Norwegian health registry.



Of these 23 reports, 13 have been looked into by Norwegian health authorities. These concerned individuals who were described as old, frail and with serious diseases.



But the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) said its guidelines remained the same.



“The FHI has specified the advice that has been valid all the time, that one should have an assessment of each and every one before offering the vaccine,” Camilla Stoltenberg, the head of the agency, told a news conference.



“These are people who are very old, are frail and have serious diseases,” she said “When it comes to the cause (of death), no analysis has been done.”



“It is not a given that this represents an overmortality or a causality,” she said.



In Norway, an average of 400 people die each week in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.



Pfizer did not have any immediate comment.



Germany’s health minister Jens Spahn said at a news briefing on Monday that the country’s vaccine regulator also saw no need to revise guidelines and that it was in contact with Norwegian counterparts.

Norway says advice on use of Pfizer vaccine is unchanged

GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization chief on Monday lambasted drugmakers’ profits and vaccine inequalities, saying it’s “not right” that younger, healthier adults in wealthy countries get vaccinated against COVID-19 before older people or health care workers in poorer countries and charging that most vaccine makers have targeted locations where “profits are highest.”



Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus kicked off the WHO’s week-long executive board meeting — virtually from its headquarters in Geneva — by lamenting that one poor country received a mere 25 vaccine doses while over 39 million doses have been administered in nearly 50 richer nations.



“Just 25 doses have been given in one lowest income country -- not 25 million, not 25,000 -- just 25. I need to be blunt: The world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure,” Tedros said. He did not specify the country, but a WHO spokeswoman identified it as Guinea.



“It’s right that all governments want to prioritize vaccinating their own health workers and older people first,” he said. “But it’s not right that younger, healthier adults in rich countries are vaccinated before health workers and older people in poorer countries. There will be enough vaccine for everyone.”



Tedros, an Ethiopian who goes by his first name, nonetheless hailed the scientific achievement behind rolling out coronavirus vaccines less than a year after the pandemic erupted in China, where a WHO-backed team has now been deployed to look into origins of the coronavirus.



“Vaccines are the shot in the arm we all need, literally and figuratively,” Tedros said. “But we now face the real danger that even as vaccines bring hope to some, they become another brick in the wall of inequality between the worlds of the world’s haves and have-nots.”



He noted the WHO-backed COVAX program, which aims to get vaccines out to all countries, rich or poor, based on need, has so far secured 2 billion vaccine doses from five producers and options on a billion doses more.



“We aim to start deliveries in February,” he said. “COVAX is ready to deliver what it was created for.”



That target date could be a tall order, because a key producer of vaccines for the developing world — the Serum Institute of India — has not confirmed a date and predicted that its rollout might not happen before March or April.



In his opening remarks, Tedros aired some of his toughest public words yet toward vaccine makers, criticizing “bilateral deals” between them and countries that the WHO says can deplete the effectiveness of the COVAX facility — and went further to raise the issue of profits.



“The situation is compounded by the fact that most manufacturers have prioritized regulatory approval in rich countries, where the profits are highest, rather than submitting full dossiers to WHO,” he said.



That appeared to allude to a shortage of data the U.N. health agency says it has received from vaccine makers so that the WHO can approve their shots for wider emergency use.



Dr. Clement Martin Auer, a board member from Austria, had sharp words and questions for GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, that also with the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations is leading the effort on COVAX.



While calling its principles of equal access to vaccines a “fantastic idea,” Auer faulted COVAX as being “slow” and unable to close “crucial numbers” of contracts. He defended the European Union, which counts among its 27 members many of the world’s richest countries, for getting vaccines for its 450 million citizens and being “the single largest donor” in supporting COVAX.



“We were, in the European Union, skeptical that GAVI-COVAX had the means and the capabilities to fulfill its tasks and negotiate the necessary contracts and to secure the needs of our citizens,” Auer said, adding that COVAX management had “rejected” proposals negotiated by GAVI and the EU.



He said GAVI-COVAX early last year had not included mRNA vaccines like those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in the COVAX portfolio.



“This was a major mistake, taking into account that the mRNAs are the early ones on the market and the gold standards when it comes to COVID vaccines,” Auer said.



The WHO has approved Pfzier-BioNTech for emergency use against coronavirus and could approve Moderna this week.



Dr. Bruce Aylward, a special adviser to Tedros, said that the WHO was in “detailed discussions with Pfizer. We believe very soon we will have access to that product.” He said the mRNA vaccines are “important” but are “extremely difficult” — alluding to cold-chain requirements, among other things, and are “extremely expensive.”



“What we are gunning for is to get 20% of the world, at least, vaccinated this year, and more ideally,” Aylward said. “We are in a strong position to move out with vaccines globally. We just need the assistance of our member states in particular to make sure that becomes the reality.”



In related vaccine news, Israel has struck a deal with Pfizer, promising to share vast troves of medical data with the international drug giant in exchange for the continued flow of its hard-to-get vaccine.



Proponents say the deal could allow Israel to become the first country to vaccinate most of its population, while providing valuable research that could help the rest of the world. But critics say the deal raises major ethical concerns, including possible privacy violations and a deepening of the global divide in access to coronavirus vaccines.



Due to the ultra-cold storage needed for the Pfizer vaccine, it is more expensive and harder to use than some rivals, including the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, but studies show it is very effective. Israeli media have reported that Israel paid at least 50 percent more than other countries for the Pfizer vaccine.

WHO chief lambasts vaccine profits, demands elderly go first

Kathmandu: It has been confirmed that a new variant of corona virus (Covid-19) has entered Nepal.



In the first week of December, three people from the UK were found to have a new variant of infection. Six people from the UK were confirmed to have corona infection in the first week of December. But due to the lack of gene sequencing, it was not clear whether there was a new type or not.



According to the Ministry of Health and Population, three samples were sent to a Hong Kong laboratory on December 27 due to negative S-gene target. New variants have been confirmed in all three samples.



A new type of virus has been found in 28-year-old women, 32-year-old and 67-year-old men. Among them, 28-year-old women and 32-year-old men have been negative while 67-year-old men have been positive.



But he has no symptoms, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Health. Jageshwar Gautam.



A new strain of corona virus (Covid-19) was found in the southeastern part of the UK in December. It is found to be 50 percent more contagious than the common corona. Experts warn that many people could be affected by the rapid spread of this virus.



The other effects, however, are similar to those of ordinary corona. However, experts say that further study is needed to reach a conclusion.



Another type of corona was also seen in South Africa. Many countries have banned travel to the UK and South Africa since the new Corona was introduced.



The new type of corona is also highly contagious due to its airborne spread. Ordinary corona diffuses slightly from the air, but newer types spread more from the air. Although this is a preliminary estimate. So far this has not been confirmed.



According to scientists, new types can be avoided by following the criteria of wearing a mask, maintaining physical distance, and using a sanitizer.

Confirmation of new variant of coronavirus in Nepal

Kathmandu: The number of active infections in Nepal has dropped to less than 4,000. In the last 24 hours, 400 people have been discharged after treatment and the number of active infected people has dropped to 3,019.



According to the Ministry of Health and Population, 400 people have been discharged in the last 24 hours and the number of people evacuated has reached 261,444.



In the last 24 hours, 266 more people have been infected with the corona virus. A PCR test of 3,508 people confirmed corona in 266 people. At the same time, the total number of infected people has reached 267,322.



Similarly, in the last 24 hours, five corona infected people have died and the number of deaths due to the infection has reached one thousand nine hundred and 59.

Number of active covid-19 infected people drop less than 4,000

Kathmandu: Foreign Minister Pradip Kumar Gyawali has said that India has given priority to Nepal for corona vaccination.



Returning home on Saturday after attending a meeting of the Nepal-India Foreign Ministers' Joint Commission, Foreign Minister Gyawali informed that discussions were held on the vaccine of Kovid 19.



He said that his visit to India would contribute to further strengthening the close, friendly and multifaceted relations between the two countries. It has been agreed to gradually reopen the air and land routes closed due to Kovid, expedite the handover of the constructed sections of the postal road and expedite the remaining work.



During the meeting, it was agreed to start work soon as the MoU for field location survey of Raxaul-Kathmandu railway construction has reached the final stage. He informed that India has agreed to connect the 4-lane road bridge under construction at Mahakali with the national road network of India.



The meeting also discussed the use of grants and loans provided by India for post-earthquake reconstruction and finalization of the project. It has also been decided to expedite the process of reviewing the transit and railway treaties and agreements between Nepal and India.



The Nepali side has requested the Government of India to take concrete steps to increase Nepal's exports. Minister for Foreign Affairs Gyawali informed that various other decisions have been taken including the agreement to further cooperate in agriculture and to speed up the MoU on the purchase of fertilizer in the G2G process.

Minister Gyawali says: India has given priority to Nepal in corona vaccination

DENVER (AP): Howard Jones, who’s 83, was on the phone for three to four hours every day trying to sign up for a coronavirus vaccine.



Jones, who lives alone in Colorado Springs, doesn’t have the internet, and that’s made it much more difficult for him to make an appointment. It took him about a week. He said the confusion has added to his anxiety about catching what could be a life-threatening disease at his age.



“It has been hell,” Jones said. “I’m 83 and to not have the use of a computer is just terrible.”



As states across the U.S. roll out the COVID-19 vaccine to people 65 and older, senior citizens are scrambling to figure out how to sign up to get their shots. Many states and counties ask people to make appointments online, but glitchy websites, overwhelmed phone lines and a patchwork of fast-changing rules are bedeviling older people who are often less tech-savvy, may live far from vaccination sites and are more likely to not have internet access at all, especially people of color and those who are poor.



Nearly 9.5 million seniors, or 16.5% of U.S. adults 65 and older, lack internet access, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Access is worse for seniors of color: more than 25% of Black people, about 21% of Hispanic people and over 28% of Native Americans 65 and older have no way to get online. That’s compared with 15.5% of white seniors.



In the San Francisco Bay Area, Dr. Rebecca Parish has been dismayed by the bureaucratic process and continued calls for help from seniors. One of her patients, who’s 83, called her in tears, unable to navigate the online appointment system at Rite Aid. A 92-year-old woman called her before dawn this week after reading about her in a newspaper, telling her, “I’ll do anything to get this vaccine.”



So Parish took things into her own hands. She reached out to Contra Costa County and acquired 500 doses to vaccinate people this weekend at a middle school in Lafayette, California. She’s working with nonprofits to identify seniors who don’t live in nursing homes and risk falling through the cracks. All her appointments have been claimed, but she’ll start taking them again once more doses are available.



Some health officials have been trying to find other solutions to ease the confusion and help senior citizens sign up, just as the Trump administration urged states this week to make the nation’s 54 million seniors eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.Some places have found simple ideas work. In Morgantown, West Virginia, county health officials used a large road construction sign to list the phone number for seniors to call for an appointment. Others are considering partnering with community groups or setting up mobile clinics for harder-to-reach populations.



Some seniors may be waiting to hear from their doctor. But there are limits to using health care systems, pharmacies or primary care providers to reach underserved people who don’t have the internet, said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers.



She said the two coronavirus vaccines available in the U.S. and their cold temperature requirements “don’t lend themselves to being sent out to rural areas.”



In McComb, Mississippi, where 77.5% of residents are Black and almost half the population lives below the poverty line, 71-year-old Mary Christian made an appointment online with her son’s help. But the only available sites are at least an hour away from she lives.



“I’m 71 years old, and my kids are not going to be happy for me driving 1 to 200 miles away to get a vaccine,” said Christian, who has diabetes.



Some medical systems, like UCHealth in Colorado, are trying to partner with community groups to get vaccines to underserved populations, like seniors.



Dr. Jean Kutner, chief medical officer of UCHealth University at Colorado Hospital, said she’s volunteering at a clinic hosted by a church that brings in the vaccine and helps build trust between health care workers and residents.



For now, UCHealth schedules appointments online, but Kutner said a COVID-19 hotline is in the works because of the volume of calls from seniors.



“Seniors are comfortable with the phone side of things, so that that’s not really a technological barrier for them,” said Gretchen Garofoli, an associate professor at West Virginia University’s School of Pharmacy.



But even a Colorado health provider setting up vaccine clinics for underserved communities, Salud Family Health Centers, said their phone lines can’t handle the volume of calls they’re receiving and encouraged people to go online.



When calling for an appointment is an option, finding a number is often only possible online.



That was the problem for Jones, the 83-year-old in Colorado. A retired service member, he considered reaching out to Veterans Affairs but couldn’t find a phone number.



He asked for help from a friend, who gave him several numbers. One led to Angela Cortez, head of communications for AARP in Colorado.



AARP has been flooded with calls from seniors like Jones who don’t have the internet and need help navigating the websites of health departments, care providers and vaccine sign-up forms, Cortez said.



“It’s not like you can show up somewhere and get vaccinated,” Cortez said. “And if you don’t have access to a computer, you’re at a disadvantage.”



Even Cortez had trouble as she tried to help Jones. She called numbers listed on the Colorado health department website and several Safeway stores after Jones heard friends were vaccinated there.



Eventually, Cortez was told to sign up online.



“I’m an employee of AARP, one; and two, I’m the communications director — I’m a trained journalist — and I have a computer, three, and I can’t even get through to anybody,” she said.



A friend was finally able to get Jones an appointment for Saturday. But he’s frustrated that he had “to go through side channels” instead of doing it himself.

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