- The first consignment of the vaccine will arrive in the country very soon.
- The plan is to vaccinate all the people together, so we will roll out the nationwide vaccination program only when we have sufficient doses for all the targeted population.
- Once we have the required number of doses, our plan is to vaccinate the entire population in their respective communities, gewogs and chiwogs in one week. We are well on track with health facilities and human resource planning. That time, movement of people will be stopped for one week.
- The second dose of the vaccine will be administered in the same arrangement four weeks after the first dose.
- When we subtract the population segments for which vaccines are not authorized world over, (includes 18 years and below, pregnant, breastfeeding women), the targeted vaccine population comes to slightly over 533,000.
- For an estimated 533,000 targeted population, we need to procure two doses each which comes to around 1,200,000 doses
- It is important we roll out the nationwide vaccination on an auspicious date. Upon consulting with Zhung Dratshang, we were informed of 𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘢 (inauspicious month) which falls between February 14 and March 13. We will wait until the period is over.
- As we wait, we will also get to learn from experiences, possible side effects and lessons of other countries who have rolled out the vaccination programs.