SL may dump China vax, orders doses from India

Asks for 10 million vials of AstraZeneca from SSI at $52.5 mn

Sri Lanka has ordered 13.5 million Oxford AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines in addition to the 5,00,000 doses gifted by India, and the country may not use Chinese vaccines in the second phase of immunisation, a govt spokesman said on Tuesday.

Ramesh Pathirana, who is also the Minister of Plantations, said Sri Lanka is likely to go only with the AstraZeneca vaccines for the second phase of vaccination as the Chinese and Russian vaccines are not ready yet.

"The Chinese vaccine has not submitted the papers relating to phase three trials," said Pathirana. For the first round of vaccinations, the government has placed an order for 10 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccine from the Serum Institute of India at a cost of USD 52.5 million and a further 3.5 million doses directly from AstraZeneca Institute of UK under the COVAX programme, the spokesman said.

India gifted 500,000 doses of the same vaccine which kicked off Sri Lanka's vaccine rollout in late January. Over 1.19 crore frontline workers vaccinated

The cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered to healthcare and frontline workers in the country has crossed 1.19 crore, the Union health ministry said on Tuesday.

A total of 1,19,07,392 vaccine doses have been given through 2,53,434 sessions till 6pm on Tuesday, as per a report. The beneficiaries include 64,71,047 healthcare workers who have taken the first dose; 13,21,635 HCWs have taken the second dose and 41,14,710 frontline workers have taken the first dose. More pvt hospitals to up accination speed: Govt

The Centre said more private hospitals will be utilised to increase the speed and coverage of vaccination in the coming days. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said of 10,000 hospitals being used for vaccination in a day, 2,000 hospitals are private.