Thimpu: Bhutan has been inoculating most of the population that qualifies with the second dose of Covid-19 vaccination in a week, in launch quickly praised by UNICEF on Monday as a “success story” for international donations.
More than 454,000 shots were given over the past week in the remote Himalayan kingdom (only more than 85 percent of adult populations that qualified more than 530,000 people) after flooded with foreign donations recently.
Bhutan UNICEF representatives, Will Parks, praised the drive of ambitious vaccination as “a big success story for Bhutan”.
“We really need a world where countries that have advantages of vaccines really contribute to countries that have not received (shots) so far,” he told AFP in the capital of Thimpu.
“And if there is something I hope the world that can learn, is that the country like Bhutan with very few doctors, very few nurses but the king and leadership who truly committed in society mobilizing society, it is not impossible to vaccinate the entire country.” Nation -The small matches quickly used most of the 550,000 Jab Asrazeneca which was contributed by India at the end of March and early April for the first JAB, before the neighboring country stopped exports on a massive surge in infection.
Facing a growing time gap between the first and second dose, Bhutan launched a donation application.
Half a million modern doses contributed by the United States through Covax, distributors supported by the World Health Organization and the Gavi Vaccine Alliance and 250,000 other Astrazeneca shots from Denmark arrived in mid-July.
More than 400,000 astrazeneca, Pfizer and Sinopharm Shots are also expected to arrive in South Asian countries from 770,000 people from Croatia, Bulgaria, China and several other countries.
The government temporarily bought 200,000 pfizer doses which are expected to be delivered later this year.
Bhutan, sandwiched between India and China and is famous for measuring gross national happiness, has reported only below 2,500 Covid-19 infections and two deaths so far.
The rapid roll-out roll-out of jab in the country stands differently from other South Asian countries, which has also been beaten by the suspension of the Indian vaccine export.