28 April 2021 12:05 am Views - 307
By Easwaran Rutnam
Sri Lanka is expected to receive more vaccines through the COVAX facility by June, the US Embassy in Sri Lanka said.
The Embassy said that Sri Lanka is expected to receive 1,440,000 doses by June. “All at no cost to Sri Lankans,” the US Ambassador to Sri Lanka Alaina B. Teplitz said.
COVAX has committed to providing 8.4 million vaccine doses to Sri Lanka, which will cover 20 percent of Sri Lanka’s population.
Sri Lanka received its first delivery of 264,000 doses of the COVAX vaccine in March. It is slated to receive 1,440,000 more doses by the end of May or early June, with the remainder arriving in the second half of 2021.
“All these doses are donor-funded and provided at no cost to Sri Lanka. As the global leader in public health assistance, the US provided $2 billion to COVAX,” the US Embassy said.
The US also noted that it has redirected $2.4 million to support COVID-19 response and recovery in Sri Lanka, and this support includes modifying existing USAID activities to continue during the pandemic and the introduction of new activities to support the COVID-19 response and recovery.
It has also reprogrammed $5.2 million in supplemental funding to support the government’s response and to help civil society and the private sector with the second and third-order effects of the pandemic.