24/7 Vaccination Drive highly successful

Over 13 million jabs given throughout the island

Local

Ishara Mudugamuwa

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COVID-19

coronavirus

As per the statistics of the Epidemiology Unit of the Health Ministry, Sri Lanka has administered 13,765,283 doses of COVID-19 vaccines by August 8.

For the first time in the country’s medical history, a 24/7 centre for vaccination was opened at the Vihara Maha Devi Park in Colombo last week. This was set up specifically to give the second dose of the AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccine received from Japan to those who were waiting eagerly for it. There was a delay in procuring the AZ second dose due to the export ban placed by India on the Serum Institute of India, which produces the Covishield vaccine, a licensed version of the Oxford AZ vaccine.

In fact, Sri Lanka started the vaccination drive back in January with the 500,000 AZ doses gifted by India under its “Vaccine Maitri” vaccine diplomacy programme. Later, Sri Lanka received several donations of the China-made Sinopharm vaccine from China. Several stocks of this vaccine were also purchased from China. Sri Lanka also received a donation of 1.5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine from the USA through the global vaccine facility COVAX (which went to the Central Province for its inoculation drive) and a stock of Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines. A consignment of Sputnik V vaccines was also obtained from Russia, though further supplies have been hit by production snags.

Accordingly, 10,986,524 people have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 2,778,714 people have completed the full two doses.

The first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been given to 1,103,873 individuals and the second dose of the same vaccine has been given to 860,723 persons.

The first dose of the Sinopharm vaccine has been given to 8,724,866 people. A total of 159,081 individuals have received the first dose of the Russia-made Sputnik V vaccine and the second dose has been administered to 14,503 persons. The first dose of the Pfizer vaccine has been given to 250,763 persons, the second dose has been given to 458 individuals and 747,941 individuals have received the first dose of the Moderna vaccine.

More than 200 centres around the country now offer mainly the Sinopharm vaccine for first and second doses. The Government has urged everyone above 30 to get vaccinated as soon as possible and the programme will soon be extended to the age group 18-30 and thereafter most probably to 12-17. The Government is also mulling over the possibility of giving a third booster shot to improve immunity against COVID-19. The following are vignettes of the vaccination drive at the Vihara Maha Devi Park and Sugathadasa Stadium yesterday.

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Tuesday, August 10, 2021 - 01:00

source http://www.dailynews.lk/2021/08/10/local/256196/247-vaccination-drive-highly-successful