An undated photo provided by the Bhutan Ministry of Health shows a helicopter used for distributing the COVID-19 vaccine to parts of mountainous Bhutan.
Lunana’s campaign is part of a quiet vaccine success story in one of Asia’s poorest countries. As of Saturday, Bhutan, a Buddhist kingdom that has emphasized its citizens’ well-being over national prosperity, had administered a first vaccine dose to more than 478,000 people, more than 60% of its population. The Health Ministry said this month that more than 93% of eligible adults had received their first shots.
All of the doses used so far were donated by the government of India, where the drug is known as Covishield and manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, the world’s largest vaccine producer. Bhutan’s government has said it plans to administer second doses about eight to 12 weeks after the first round, in line with guidelines for the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The yak damage to the tents was not the only hiccup. Some villagers did not initially show up to be vaccinated because they were busy harvesting barley or because they worried about possible side effects. “But after we told them about the benefits, they agreed,” Tashi said. A government committee in Bhutan meets once a week to make decisions about which patients to send overseas for treatment, Yot said. He said the committee — which focuses on brain and heart surgery, kidney transplants and cancer treatment — was known informally as the “death panel.”
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