Covid not gone

Neither the government nor the common folks can afford to take the ever-mutating virus lightly.

Life in Nepal has returned to a semblance of normalcy after the Covid-19 pandemic had the country in its grips in 2020-21. People have stopped masking, handwashing, sanitising, and even vaccinating. There have been few new reported Covid-19 cases. While that is understandable after a prolonged “covid fatigue”, recent reports of people shunning booster vaccine doses is concerning as it reflects growing vaccine hesitancy. For the same reason, the health authorities in Kathmandu Valley are planning a mass vaccination campaign on March 22, 23, and 24. The Ministry of Health and Population only recently began administering the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent Covid-19 vaccine as the second booster after the first shots, which were given a year ago. Health workers, pregnant women, people with compromised immunity and chronic diseases, and those above 55 are the priority groups for booster doses in the first phase.