Thimphu: The Lunana area of Bhutan is remote even by the standards of an isolated Himalayan kingdom: It covers an area about twice the size of New York City, borders far western China, includes glacial lakes and some of the world’s highest peaks, and is inaccessible by car.
Still, most people living there have already received a coronavirus vaccine.
Vials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine arrived last month by helicopter and were distributed by health workers, who walked from village to village through snow and ice. Vaccinations proceeded in the area’s 13 settlements even after yaks damaged some of the field tents that volunteers had set up for patients.
[서울신문] 산악 국가 부탄, 야크 공격에도 접종율 세계6위 비결은
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히말라야 뚫어낸 부탄의 기적… 백신 접종률 세계 2위
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How the Tiny Kingdom of Bhutan Out-Vaccinated Most of the World
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. For months, Bhutan sat on hundreds of thousands of doses of AstraZeneca s coronavirus vaccine, waiting for the stars to align. Despite receiving a supply of vaccines in January, the small Himalayan kingdom didn t begin immunizing its population until March 27, a date that was selected through astrological consultations with Buddhist monks. But once that auspicious date arrived, Bhutan made up for lost time. In less than two weeks, the country administered first doses of the vaccine to more than 93% of eligible adults, according to its Ministry of Health. The country has delivered initial vaccine doses to a larger share of its population than any other nation besides the Seychelles, and rapidly outpaced wealthy nations such as Israel and the United Kingdom that have been carrying out aggressive vaccination campaigns for months. Like many other leaders in the vaccine race, it s benefited from its small size: With only slightly less land area than Switzerland, it has less than