11 May 2021 12:02 am Views - 4240
By Easwaran Rutnam
Sri Lanka has taken the credit for the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine being approved by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
In a statement issued last night, President’s Spokesman Kingsly Rathnayaka said that Sri Lanka received a donation of 600,000 doses of the Chinese Sinopharm vaccine. However, the vaccine had not been approved for use by the World Health Organization.
Rathnayaka said that the WHO later approved the vaccine as a result of a discussion President Gotabaya Rajapaksa had with the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“However, as a result of a discussion President Gotabaya Rajapaksa held with the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) via ‘Zoom’ last Friday, the WHO on the same evening approved the emergency use of the “Sinopharm “ vaccine,” Rathnayaka said in a statement.
The WHO could not be reached for a comment by Daily Mirror last night on the claims made by Sri Lanka.
Rathnayaka said the Sinopharm vaccination programme commenced the day after receiving approval and the government is making arrangements to vaccinate 25,000 people per day in the Western Province under the first phase.
He also said that Sri Lanka is to now receive another 3 million doses of Sinopharm vaccines from China.
Rathnayaka said that negotiations held with the Chinese authorities to obtain three million doses of the Sinopharm vaccines have been successful.