• Country has been warned to tighten border restrictions to keep the new variants out 
• The vaccine seemed to be working well against the UK variant

By JAMILA HUSAIN 

Sri Lanka will continue with the AstraZeneca vaccine despite concerns raised by South Africa who has put its use of the vaccination on hold after a study showed disappointing results against its new COVID variant, but Sri Lanka has been warned to tighten its borders to keep the new variants out, officials said. 

The efficiency of the AstraZeneca vaccines on the South African variant of the COVID-19 has dropped considerably and countries such as Sri Lanka have been told to tighten its border restrictions by independent health experts, to keep this variant out as many citizens will be vaccinated with the AstraZeneca in the 
coming months. 

Ravi Rannan-Eliya, Head of Institute of Health Policy, an independent research body said in a Twitter message that this was a “big warning to us,” and we needed to tighten borders to keep these variants out. 

The Daily Mirror learns that the World Health Organisation is continuing with its study on the AstraZeneca vaccine to be used under emergency use and will reach its verdict by Monday. If the WHO approves the AstraZeneca under emergency use purposes, then it will provide Sri Lanka with 1.8 million doses of the vaccine by the end of this month under its COVAX facility. 

Further, the government has also placed an order for 18 million doses of the AstraZeneca from the Serum Institute in India which is expected to arrive in Sri Lanka by next month after which the government will roll out its mass vaccination programme. 

• The government has also placed an order for 18 million doses of the AstraZeneca from the Serum Institute in India