COVID 19 has seriously impacted the lives of people in Nepal. All 7 provinces and 77 districts in the country are now experiencing community transmission with more cases at districts bordering India, including parts of Western Terai such as Kanchanpur, Banke, Bardiya, and Lumbini province, along with the capital city, Kathmandu. The pandemic has greatly impacted the community’s access to basic and other services such as food security & nutrition, health services including psychosocial counselling and reproductive health services, education, WASH, income, and livelihoods.

In contrast to the first wave, many communities, especially from marginalized and vulnerable backgrounds, had to decrease their intake of nutritious food and were deprived of access to health services due to loss of jobs and income as well as the scarcity of resources respectively.  With the rapidly increasing community transmission observed in the second phase and the continuing risks in the days ahead, vaccination is a dire need in the country. 

In response to the same, CARE Nepal has been implementing the ‘COVID-19 response program’ since the 1st wave of the pandemic. The program has been designed to contribute across five pillars:

• Risk Communications
• Infection Prevention and Control
• Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH)
• Food security and Livelihood
• Protection and Gender-Based Violence