The Army yesterday launched a 24-hour vaccination centre at the Vihara Maha Devi Park, Colombo, for providing the second dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine to those who had obtained the first dose some months back. The second dose is being provided at a number of centres in the Western Province. Here Army personnel engaged in the inoculation drive at the Vihara Maha Devi Park. Left: A section of the crowd waiting to get their shot. Pictures by Ranjith Asanka and Sudath Malaweera
The Sri Lanka Army for the first time launched a 24-hour vaccination drive to administer the second dose of Oxford – AstraZeneca (AZ) vaccines from yesterday morning and this programme will continue until further notice on the directive of Army Commander and Head of National Operations Centre for Prevention of COVID-19 Outbreak (NOCPCO) General Shavendra Silva.
This vaccination drive was launched giving priority to those who had received the first jab of Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine with the receipt of 728,460 doses from the people of Japan as a donation under the COVAX vaccine sharing mechanism.
In addition the vaccine will be administered in MOH offices covering Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara districts. Thirteen hospitals and locations including the Vihara Maha Devi Park and the Kotelawala Defence University Hospital started administering the second dose of AstraZeneca vaccine.
Those who arrive at the vaccination centre should have their National Identity Card and the Vaccination card in their possession.
The novel initiative came in the wake of the World Health Organization congratulating the Government for administering a record number of over 500,000 Covid 19 vaccines in a single day on Friday.
The WHO country team in a tweet considered it as an incredible achievement in the fight against Covid- 19 fight
“Another day with 500,000+ #vaccinated. Over 3 million in the last 7 days. Let’s safeguard this incredible achievement in the fight against #COVID 19 by strong vigilance on other key factors - Public health and social measures and social mixing”, the WHO Country Team tweeted.
The latest donation of AZ vaccines to Sri Lanka is the third COVAX allocation to Sri Lanka, all being entirely donor-funded, with no cost to the country.The first delivery of COVID-19 vaccines from the COVAX Facility was 264,000 doses of AstraZeneca in March, followed by 1.5 million Moderna vaccines donated by the US last month.
The Government of Japan’s donation is an important response to calls for dose-sharing through the COVAX Facility as an immediate measure to address shortages in vaccine supply. COVAX, the vaccine initiative, is the only global mechanism that distributes vaccines rapidly and equitably with the mission to help end the acute phase of the pandemic as quickly as possible.This consignment of AstraZeneca vaccine was brought to Sri Lanka by a SriLankan Airlines flight from Narita Airport on Saturday evening.Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena expressed his gratitude to the Government and the people of Japan for donating over 1.4 million doses of AstraZeneca vaccines to Sri Lanka at the request of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, under the COVAX facility.
The Minister was addressing the media at the Katunayake Bandaranaike International Airport on Saturday (31/07) after receiving the consignment of AstraZeneca vaccines.
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa wrote to the Japanese Prime Minister requesting for a consignment of AstraZeneca vaccines to save the people of Sri Lanka from the COVID pandemic. Following this request, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Japan Sanjiv Gunasekara under the guidance of Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, and Ambassador of Japan to Sri Lanka Sugiyama Akira worked towards realizing this donation along with UNICEF and the WHO in Sri Lanka.
The Minister also thanked the Chief Sangha Nayake of Japan Ven. Banagala Upatissa Nayake Thera for assisting in this effort.
Ambassador of Japan to Sri Lanka, Sugiyama Akira, UNICEF Sri Lanka Representative Emma Brigham. WHO Representative to Sri Lanka, Dr Alaka Singh, UN Resident Coordinator in Sri Lanka, Hanaa Singer-Hamdy, were present at the airport.
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