26 June 2021 12:10 am Views - 1440
Sri Lanka plans for the completion of inoculation of all people above 60 with at least the first dose against Covid-19 by the middle of next month, a Minister said yesterday.
There are 2.7 million people belonging to this age group, and one million of them have already received their jabs.
State Minister of Production, Supply and Regulation of Pharmaceuticals Prof. Channa Jayasumana told Daily Mirror the government would purchase 1.5 million doses of Sinovac jabs - the latest to be added to the basket of Covid-19 vaccines being used in Sri Lanka – from China next month.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) validated this vaccine on June 1 for emergency use, giving countries, funders, procuring agencies and communities the assurance that it meets international standards for safety, efficacy and manufacturing.
The vaccine is manufactured by the Beijing-based pharmaceutical company Sinovac. The National Medicines Regulatory Authority (NMRA) of Sri Lanka is expected to approve it for emergency use in Sri Lanka next week.
Besides, the government will receive another batch of two million doses of Sinopharm vaccines , another jab produced in China, during the first week of July as a commercial purchase.
Prof. Jayasumana said the United States would donate a dispatch of its mRNA-1273 vaccine (Moderna) as a donation next month. The amount was to be confirmed last evening.
“We were assured that Pfizer will also deliver 205,000 vaccine doses next month in batches. The first lot will arrive on July 5,” he said.
Also, Sri Lanka is planning to co-produce Sinovac in August in partnership with the Chinese company.