Kathmandu, Feb 4 (IANS): Nepal has successfully vaccinated more than half of its population against Covid-19 as the Himalayan nation is still battling the third wave of the pandemic, the Ministry of Health and Population said.

With 266,540 people inoculated in the last 24 hours, 14.92 million people in Nepal have been fully vaccinated, which accounted for 51.2 per cent of the country's total population of 29.12 million, said the Ministry.

"This is obviously a big achievement, and this has been possible due to the support of all the stakeholders," Samir Kumar Adhikari, a ministry spokesman, told Xinhua news agency.

"We could have achieved a higher vaccination coverage with the active participation of people all the time," he said.

"There is a tendency among people to line up to take the vaccines when the Covid-19 cases surge while staying passive at other times."

He added that Nepali people have largely been supportive of the vaccination drive launched in January last year.

In Nepal, nearly 71 per cent of those aged 18 and above had been fully vaccinated and nearly 87 per cent of this age group had received at least one dose of vaccines till date, the Health Ministry said, noting that 68.4 percent of the population had been administered with at least one dose of vaccines.

The country has so far received 45.7 million doses of vaccines, the Ministry said.

The Nepali government aims to vaccinate the entire population by mid-April.