Bhutan has secured 550,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from European Union countries like Denmark, Bulgaria and Croatia among others. Additionally, the country has also secured 200,000 doses of Pfizer vaccine from the United States. The vaccine is expected to arrive within a week. The Prime Minister announced that the second jab is likely to begin by the 19th of this month.
The registration for the second jab began today. The Prime Minister said those who have already registered for the first dose need not have to register this time. And children who are 11 years and above and those who did not register for the first dose are asked to register this time.
“We have more people under 18 years of age in the country. Even if the population above 18 are all vaccinated, that would mean only 80 per cent of the population would be vaccinated. Medical experts have worked hard to come out with a vaccine that can be given to the population below 18,” said the Prime Minister.
The Prime Minister added that Bhutan still has 60,000 vaccine doses left from the first vaccination drive.
“We have been seeking help from 14 to 15 countries regarding the vaccine. There are so many countries with whom we have good foreign relations and they have helped us. We even received the confirmation letter from them and the flight date has also been fixed. We have received approximately 550,000 AstraZeneca vaccines to date.”
Lyonchhen urged everyone to take the jab to increase the number because the country needs coverage of at least 80 per cent of the total population to secure herd immunity.
Bhutan gave the first COVID-19 jab from 27th March. The country will complete the sixteen weeks of vaccination gap by mid of this month.
Kelzang Choden/ Yeshey Dema
