How the Tiny Kingdom of Bhutan Out-Vaccinated Most of the World

The Himalayan nation has given more than 60 percent of its people a shot. Some villages were reached by helicopter, and health workers hiked through ice and snow.

THIMPHU, Bhutan — 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.