Kathmandu, Apr 5 (IANS): The Nepal government has decided to administer the Chinese Covid-19 vaccine don Wednesday amid resurging cases of the novel coronavirus in the Himalayan country, an official of the Ministry of Health and Population said.

On March 29, a batch of the Chinese Covid-19 vaccines developed by Sinopharm was delivered to Nepal, reports Xinhua news agency.

"The Chinese vaccine will be administered to people starting from Wednesday," Jageshwor Gautam, spokesperson at the Health Ministry, told a press conference.

"Those involved in essential services, students studying in China under the Chinese government scholarship but are currently stuck in Nepal due to pandemic, Nepali students preparing to leave for China for the higher study and people involved in cross-border trade between Nepal and China will be inoculated with the Chinese vaccine."

According to the Ministry, essential workers include the people who are working in postal and telephone services, water supply and distribution, hotels and restaurant, public transportation services, electricity supply, storage and transportation of consumer goods, sales and distribution of medicines and the health workers who had missed out in the first phase of the vaccination drive that began on January 27.

Gautam said the Chinese vaccines would be administered from designated hospitals in Kathmandu Valley.

Nepal reported 176 new Covid cases on Monday. In early March, the cases went down below 50 per day.

Nepal has so far inoculated over 1.7 million people in two phases, according to the Ministry of Health and Population.